The Milan Seminar

'Marco Bacciagaluppi brings the work and the person of John Bowlby to life through previously unpublished correspondence with him, through Bowlby's replies to questions posed during a 1985 conference in Milan, through a terrific review of the history of relational psychoanalysis in Italy, and through several in-depth clinical vignettes. The Milan Seminar adds to and extends Bacciagaluppi's impressive study of relational psychoanalysis.'- Gerald P. Perman, MD, Secretary of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry and Editor of the Academy Forum'Given the vast literature we now possess on violence and neglect within the family, and its associated impact on mental health across the lifespan, it is difficult to imagine that just 30 years ago the importance of the real life experience of children was still debated. This superb volume provides a remarkably intimate view of John Bowlby's crucial role in this debate, through the 1980s, as revealed in letters exchanged with psychiatrist and author Marco Bacciagaluppi.'- Mark Erickson, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine'Through this very valuable book Marco Bacciagaluppi not only shows his pioneering role in the Italian reception of John Bowlbys work, but he also offers us a correspondence whose nature and interest remind me of the correspondences developed by Freud with analysts such as Jung, Abraham and Ferenczi. If such exchanges of letters still represent one of the best introductions to psychoanalysis, the same is true for Bacciagaluppis correspondence with Bowlby. Its publication in this book, together with the workshop given by Bowlby in Milan in 1985 and the follow-ups written by some of its participants, also represent a noteworthy contribution to the reconstruction of a very important phase of Italian psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. In fact, it was through the reception of a whole series of foreign points of view during the 1960s (Benedetti and Arieti), the 1970s (Bions 1977 Italian Seminars), the 1980s (besides Bowlby, Meltzer and Bollas), and the 1990s (Mitchell) that Italian psychoanalysts and psychotherapists eventually produced that new synthesis that recently made Italy internationally prominent in our field.'- Marco Conci, Co-editor-in-chief, International Forum of Pschoanalysis