Contents & abstracts



Focus
Psychoanalysis and Rehabilitation: a Broader Look

M.P. Chiavelli, L. De Rosa. Introduction Richard & Piggle, 26, 2, 2018, 109-112.

F. Della Ratta. Perceptual Disorders and Emotional Development in Children with cerebral Palsy. Starting Points for Reflection in a Rehabilitation Context. Richard & Piggle, 26, 2, 2018, 113-122.

Supported by the theory and methodology of child psychoanalysis, the article considers the ways in which perceptual disorders in children with cerebral palsy can influence their psychic development. The bodily bases for mental functioning, the disease’s impact on the primary relationship and the defences that can come into play in such a condition are all described through two clinical vignettes: one illustrating the early phases of development and the other illustrating the latency period. The authors demonstrate the importance of intervening early on, both through the Mother-Child relationship and through the integration of interventions with the child, the family and the health-care workers, including in the rehabilitation field.


G. Diana. Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: Rino’s Story. Richard & Piggle, 26, 2, 2018, 123-131.

The author presents the case of a child suffering from a learning disorder and associates his psychopathology with his learning difficulties. Taking his clinical history as her starting point, she supposes that the problems encountered both in affect-regulation and in the physiological processes during early infancy and the mother’s difficulty in making sense of her child’s pervasive anxiety played their part - in conjunction with the neurological dysfunctions extensively covered in the Learning Disorder documentation - in producing such a complex clinical condition, characterised as it was by the comorbidity of a learning disorder, ADHD and an omnipotent personality profile. The psychoanalytical perspective is presented as a useful tool for working-through at a more complex level.


R. Ferraro. Psychoanalysis’ Contribution to Rehabilitation Work. Richard & Piggle, 26, 2, 2018, 132-139.

The work seeks to look more closely at the intersecting and mutually enriching relationship between the psychoanalytic vertex and the clinical work that is born of rehabilitation. The author considers contributions and points of convergence relating to subjects such as setting, the therapeutic relationship, transference and the group field. She highlights how rehabilitation work proposes some fundamental Winnicottian conceptualizations “in action”, including the construction of a transitional space and the process of the mind’s indwelling in the body. The article ends by emphasizing the therapeutic and training potential both of teamwork and of group therapy as possible ways forward in the future.


L. Vitiello. Group Supervisions in Rehabilitation Contexts. Richard & Piggle, 26, 2, 2018, 140-152.

The article develops the theme of group supervision in an institutional environment. After comparing the mind’s functioning to that of institutions, the work analyses the need for group supervision in those rehabilitation contexts where children and parents are treated by two different psychotherapists. The author then dwells on the problems linked to a form of collusion occurring between the parental couple, the child’s symptom and institutional dynamics. Two clinical vignettes are subsequently used to address the subject of the significance of economic benefits offered by institutions to children being treated in Rehabilitation Centres.

Clinical Diary
D. Ricciardi. Oedipal Patterns and Flows of Projection in a Single-parent Family. Richard &
Piggle, 26, 3, 2018, 153-165.

The article presents some reflections on the psychotherapeutic work done with a single-parent family composed of a mother and a son in his latency period. The author highlights the close connection between the mother’s internal Oedipal configuration, the flows of projection directed at her son and the aggressive symptomatology he presented. The mother’s heavy use of projective identification in her relationship with her child appeared to be traceable both to a complex working-through of the bereavements and losses she had suffered and to the conflictual Oedipal dynamics characterizing her internal world.


L. Panarello. Adolescents’ Use of the Body: Pregnancy as a Quest for Identity. Richard & Piggle, 26, 2, 2018, 166-179.

The article proposes the theme of pregnancy during adolescence as a confused attempt at seeking a personal identity and the expression of emotional malaise within a relationship with one’s mother that is characterised by conflict and profound ambivalence. Such aspects nevertheless remain unwitting and the decision to become a parent so early has the features of an acting out that allows a fantasy of omnipotence to be realized. The subject is tackled first at a theoretical level, referring to Dinora Pines, Alessandra Lemma and Melanie Klein whilst developing the theme of body use during both adolescence and pregnancy. The second part of the work presents three very different clinical situations with differing developments and prognoses.


M. Sarnelli. Fraternity: between the “Incestual” and the Oedipal. Richard & Piggle, 26, 2, 2018, 180-188.

The article investigates the tangled relationship between Oedipal complexes and archaic fraternal complexes. The study analyses a trans-generational incestual dynamic in the specific clinical case of an adolescent. It examines two possible functions of the fraternal complex in the scenario outlined. The first is supportive and fosters an overcoming of the Oedipal complex by shifting its working-through onto a level that is less exciting whilst operating on more equal terms. The second, in contrast, tends to repeat a confusing cliché that denies differences and sexuality and hinders the subjectivization process. Given the presence of losses that siblings both of the patient and of the parental couple had never worked through, the article reflects on the repercussions that such a lack of working-through can have on the specific psychic processes at work during adolescence.

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