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Reading Italian Psychoanalysis

Franco Borgogno editor Alberto Luchetti editor Luisa Marino Coe editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:8th Mar '16

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Reading Italian Psychoanalysis cover

Winner of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Prize for best Edited book published in 2016

Psychoanalysis in Italy is a particularly diverse and vibrant profession, embracing a number of influences and schools of thought, connecting together new thinking, and producing theorists and clinicians of global renown. Reading Italian Psychoanalysis provides a comprehensive guide to the most important Italian psychoanalytic thinking of recent years, including work by major names such as Weiss, E.Gaddini, Matte Blanco, Nissim Momigliano, Canestri, Amati Mehler, and Ferro. It covers the most important theoretical developments and clinical advances, with special emphasis on contemporary topics such as transference, trauma and primitive states of mind where Italian work has been particular influential.

In this volume, Franco Borgogno, Alberto Luchetti and Luisa Marino Coe of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society provide an overview of how Italian psychoanalysis has developed from the 1920’s to the present day, tracing its early influences and highlighting contemporary developments. Forty-six seminal and representative papers of psychoanalysts belonging to the two Italian psychoanalytical societies (the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and the Italian Association of Psychoanalysis) have been chosen to illuminate what is special about Italian theoretical and clinical thinking, and what is demonstrative of the specificity of its psychoanalytic discourse. The selected papers are preceded by a first introductory section about the history of psychoanalysis in Italy and followed by a "swift glance at Italian psychoanalysis from abroad". They are grouped into sections which represent the areas particularly explored by Italian psychoanalysis. Each section is accompanied by introductory comments which summarize the main ideas and concepts and also their historical and cultural background, so as to offer to the reader either an orientation and stimulus for the debate and to indicate their connections to other papers included in the present volume and to the international psychoanalytic world.

The book is divided into six parts including:

  • History of psychoanalysis in Italy
  • Metapsychology
  • Clinical practice, theory of technique, therapeutic factors
  • The person of the analyst, countertransference and the analytic relationship/field
  • Trauma, psychic pain, mourning and working-through
  • Preverbal, precocious, fusional, primitive states of the mind

This volume offers an excellent and detailed "fresco" of Italian psychoanalytic debate, shining a light on thinking that has evolved differently in France, England, North and Latin America. It is an ideal book for beginners and advanced...

Until recently psychoanalysis in Italy has evolved in relative isolation from other communities. With the publication of this volume, Anglophone analysts have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the wide range of perspectives that contribute to what has become an unusually vibrant and creative tradition. Guided by introductions that masterfully illuminate both historical and clinical developments, the reader becomes immersed in ideas that are original and stimulating. This book is essential for analysts interested in learning more about what is happening in Italy, and also for anybody who wishes to enrich their own conceptual and clinical thinking. - Jay Greenberg, Ph.D. Editor, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Drs. Borgogno, Luchetti and Marino Coe have done a masterful job in bringing together a comprehensive overview of Italian psychoanalysis. This work offers a rare opportunity for English-speaking colleagues to become acquainted with the outstanding contributions of our Italian colleagues. This book provides an essential education for students and practitioners alike. - Theodore Jacobs, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Emeritus

Reading Italian Psychoanalysis eloquently constitutes an original contribution which questions the great issues of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. This work offers the reader an encounter with the broad Italian psychoanalytic thought from its origins to the present day and constitutes a rich, and unexpected, source for explorations. On the one hand, it encourages the broadening of the psychoanalytic perspective and on the other, it reveals the eloquent manifestations of this perspective in culture and in society. This book has manifold interests, but in particular I would like to emphasize its human dimension and the fervour conveyed by its authors. It is this fervour that turns the reading of this book into a profound, transforming experience. - Luis Kancyper, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, Argentine Psychoanalytic Association; Recipient of the M. Sigourney Award, 2014

Despite a long and illustrious history, Italian psychoanalysis has gained international recognition only in recent decades. Now, including such legendary names as Edoardo Weiss, Ignacio Matte Blanco, Parthenope Bion Talamo, and Luciana Nissim Momigliano, as well as its many brilliant contemporary representatives, the collective achievement of this school of interpsychic masters can be appreciated for the first time in this authoritative volume superbly edited by Franco Borgogno, Alberto Luchetti and Luisa Marino Coe. — Peter L. Rudnytsky, University of Florida and Florida Psychoanalytic Institute


Until recently psychoanalysis in Italy has evolved in relative isolation from other communities. With the publication of this volume, Anglophone analysts have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the wide range of perspectives that contribute to what has become an unusually vibrant and creative tradition. Guided by introductions that masterfully illuminate both historical and clinical developments, the reader becomes immersed in ideas that are original and stimulating. This book is essential for analysts interested in learning more about what is happening in Italy, and also for anybody who wishes to enrich their own conceptual and clinical thinking. - Jay Greenberg, Ph.D. Editor, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Drs. Borgogno, Luchetti and Marino Coe have done a masterful job in bringing together a comprehensive overview of Italian psychoanalysis. This work offers a rare opportunity for English-speaking colleagues to become acquainted with the outstanding contributions of our Italian colleagues. This book provides an essential education for students and practitioners alike. - Theodore Jacobs, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Emeritus

Reading Italian Psychoanalysis eloquently constitutes an original contribution which questions the great issues of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. This work offers the reader an encounter with the broad Italian psychoanalytic thought from its origins to the present day and constitutes a rich, and unexpected, source for explorations. On the one hand, it encourages the broadening of the psychoanalytic perspective and on the other, it reveals the eloquent manifestations of this perspective in culture and in society. This book has manifold interests, but in particular I would like to emphasize its human dimension and the fervour conveyed by its authors. It is this fervour that turns the reading of this book into a profound, transforming experience. - Luis Kancyper, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, Argentine Psychoanalytic Association; Recipient of the M. Sigourney Award, 2014

Despite a long and illustrious history, Italian psychoanalysis has gained international recognition only in recent decades. Now, including such legendary names as Edoardo Weiss, Ignacio Matte Blanco, Parthenope Bion Talamo, and Luciana Nissim Momigliano, as well as its many brilliant contemporary representatives, the collective achievement of this school of interpsychic masters can be appreciated for the first time in this authoritative volume superbly edited by Franco Borgogno, Alberto Luchetti and Luisa Marino Coe. — Peter L. Rudnytsky, University of Florida and Florida Psychoanalytic Institute

ISBN: 9781138932869

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 1400g

738 pages