Contents & abstracts



Theory and Technique
J. André. Little Louis and Little Hans. Richard e Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 1-9.

“Little girls have three holes, little boys have only got two…”; “Little boys have a widdler.  Little girls don’t”. Whether childhood sexual theories/phantasies follow that of little Louis (Althusser) or that of little Hans, in these forms they deny any difference between the sexes.  Denial of the difference between the sexes is the element most commonly found in the psyche’s world. The multiplication of holes and the image of a missing penis are two forms of representation that create an opening for conceptions of heterogeneous femininity.


A. Molli. Contemporary Adolescents: Confused Aliens Just Landed on an Unknown Planet? Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 10-26.

This work presents contemporary adolescents as they are when we meet them in the therapist’s room: the witnesses to social and familial transformations and new forms of mental suffering. The author hypothesizes the existence of a link between the symptoms of adolescents who seem to “vanish” when they come into emotional contact, and a lack of mirroring:  as if a fragile parenting (liquid in its turn) were linked to these young peoples’ new forms of malaise so often connoted with a dependence on “prosthesis-objects”, with which they seek to fill the void created by a lack both of a healthy dependence and of the quest for an authentic independence. It becomes crucial to know how to draw the patient closer with “words that touch”, by offering to listen to his/her (sometimes silent) voice as well as the therapist’s own emotions.

Clinical Reflections
A. Gentile. The Oedipal Scenario in Smithereens. Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 27-34.

Drawing on her own experience in the public health sector, the author reflects on current clinical treatment during the age of development. The new Oedipal tragedy confronts us not only with failed attempts at repression but also with a genuine pulverization of what was, once upon a time, the family scene. Nowadays, this tragedy seems to be enacted “live”, without any intervention from a “third”. The new families are presenting a singular poverty in transferable experience when compared with the enormous developments in technology occurring in our times. What treatment can child psychoanalysts offer such a “cultural winter”?


L. Quagelli. Between Oedipus and Narcissus: Psychodrama and Polyphony in Psychic Processes during Adolescence. Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 35-48.

Taking as his starting point the case of Mario, a young patient treated by way of psychoanalytic psychodrama for the individual, the author discusses how Oedipal problems and narcissistic suffering can become entangled during adolescence. The author describes Mario’s different phases of treatment in detail. He illustrates the gradual development of the processes that lead to the possibility of constructing a tie between that most classic problem of working through the pubertal body’s sexual potential, on the one hand, and the integration of split and frozen elements belonging to a traumatic (earlier) history, on the other.


E. Evangelisti. The Same Eyes but Different Gazes. Reflections on the Psychoanalytic Infant Observation of Two Homozygous Twin Girls. Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 49-66.

Iris and Carola are two homozygous twins born into a family of foreign origin with two other already existing children. Psychoanalytical observation conducted weekly in the babies’ home environment made it possible to understand aspects of their growth and development alongside those of the family nucleus as a whole: the latter was “interfacing” with experiences of doubleness and twinship for the first time. When conducted during such a delicate phase as a child’s first two years, infant observation that pays attention to details can reveal inner resources and/or indicate (from the preventive perspective) the possible presence (as in Iris’ case) of suffering and elements that have not been worked through.

Psychoanalysis and Adolescence
P. Velonà. La classe entre les murs. Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 67-75.

After emphasizing some of the differences between the French and Italian school systems, the author reflects on the title of the film “La classe entre les murs”. Various “walls” are present at school, ranging from the ethnic one to the cultural one. The author focuses his attention, in particular, on the “resistance” that adolescents tend to develop towards education. A “resistance” that, in its turn, creates a counter-transference in teachers that is difficult to manage. The author then goes back over Winnicott’s theories on “objective hatred”. He ends his article by imagining their possible application in a teaching context.

In Memoriam
AA.AA. Remembering Giuliana De Astis. Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 76-78.

The Enchanting Screen
M. Buongiovanni and M. Donadio. L’enfant. A love story. Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 79-82.

V. Giammaria. The Harry Potter Cinema Saga. Richard & Piggle, 24, 1, 2016, 83-86.

Book reviews