The Fortunes of the Relational Model in Italy: Notes on Publishing, Teaching, and Training

Abstract

The beginning of the Italian “relational turn” dates back to the translation, in 1986, of Greenberg and Mitchell’s Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory. The authors illustrate how the Italian psychodynamic world received this book and the following contributions from the relational colleagues from the United States. In particular, they review the last three decades of Italian psychoanalytic publications (both journals and books) and training programs (both private and public schools), showing the increasing presence of relational elements and the specific ways in which they appear, sometime facing hostility and devaluation. Nowadays, thanks to the pioneering work of a determinate and passionate group of psychoanalysts and editorial consultants, we can say that the relational turn in Italy is a “matter of fact” and the relational approach one of the most influential voices in the Italian psychoanalytic and psychodynamic community.

Notes

¹ The research was carried out using PEP Web. The keywords entered were “Relational model,” “Relational psychoanalysis,” “Stephen Mitchell,” “Psychonalytic Dialogues,” “Contemporary Psychoanalysis.”

² We should also note Boringhieri’s foresight in translating authors such as Kohut (1971, 1977, 1984) and other texts of Self psychology, Daniel Stern (1985), Stolorow and Atwood (1992), all of them very important for the understanding of the relational turn and the crisis of the Freudian drive model.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giorgio Caviglia

Giorgio Caviglia, Ph.D., is Full Professor of Clinical and Dynamic Psychology and Chair of the master’s degree course in Clinical Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples (Italy). He deals with Psychodiagnostic, Attachment Theory and Research in Psychotherapy. He is member of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR Italy) and of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP). With Lingiardi, Amadei, and De Bei he coauthored La svolta relazionale. Itinerari italiani (The Relational Turn: Italian Journeys, 2011).

Vittorio Lingiardi

Vittorio Lingiardi, M.D., is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and Full Professor and Director of the Clinical Psychology Specialization Program at the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome. He is member of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR Italy), of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP), and of the International Association for Analytical Psychology, IAAP. For Raffaello Cortina Publisher he is Chief Editor of the series “Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Psychotherapy.” His scientific and research areas of interest are (a) assessment of personality disorders, (b) psychotherapy/psychoanalysis research, (c) defense mechanisms, (d) therapeutic alliance, and (e) gender identity and sexual orientation. With the paper “Psychoanalytic Attitudes Towards Homosexuality: An Empirical Research” (International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 85, 2004, pp. 137–158) he won the 2004 Ralph Roughton APA Paper Award. He is the author of many books and papers. With Amadei, Caviglia, and De Bei he coauthored La svolta relazionale. Itinerari italiani (The Relational Turn: Italian Journeys, 2011). With Nancy McWilliams and Robert Wallerstein he is in the Steering and Scientific Committee of the new edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (Guilford Press, expected for 2015).