National Meeting on Research in Psychoanalysis

National Meeting on Research in Psychoanalysis
Italian Psychoanalytical Society (SPI)

On January 20 2018 in Rome, Italian psychoanalysts will meet for a working-day on research in psychoanalysis.

This event marks the presentation of a big scientific project based on the preliminary hypothesis that research is an implicit feature of analytical work and therefore an intrinsic presence in the analyst’s mind. In order to study, develop and disseminate this mental attitude in the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, we intend to promote a long-term activity based on a specific research tool: research groups based on the observation of the transformations that take place during the analytical process.

This tool has been perfected by an IPA Research Committee (Project Group for Clinical Observation) aimed at developing activities for improving the quality of clinical research utilizing the Three-Level Model for Observing Patient’s Transformations specifically created to carry on a systematic clinical observation of the transformations of patients during psychoanalytic treatments. The method is based on three successive levels of clinical observation and conceptual elaboration and aims at refining the analyst’s observation skills (the so-called analytical second gaze) and at promoting the integration of conceptual and clinical aspects in analytical practice.

This research model has already been successfully applied in other psychoanalytical communities and has led to relevant scientific research with institutional repercussions (Leuzinger-Bohleber et al., 2003) since it also allows for expert validation.

Research groups also provide room for dialogue between analysts of different schools and training and allow them to test the different models and hypotheses they make use of. Groups also satisfy institutional aims as they allow for the

  • comparison of theoretical models
  • study of the diagnostic process and its methodology in order to define the most appropriate setting according to the current complex subjectivation processes
  • improvement of relations between individual members and the meeting of older and younger generations of analysts
  • deep reflections on the changes the analysis’s identity is undergoing.

Among the aims of this meeting – where speakers will be Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Anna Nicolò and Fernando Riolo – we like to mention: 1) describe the situation of the empirical and conceptual trends of research in psychoanalysis today; 2) illustrate the project creating the groups based on the 3L Method; 3) give rise to meticulous and exact research work that starts from the observation of the micro-phenomena that take place during the session and leads to the construction of conceptual hypotheses to be tested against clinical events and therefore develop the research mentality that is indispensable for joining creativity and availability when an analyst has to face the complex forms taken by mental suffering.

 

Edited by Massimo Vigna-Taglianti

Scientific  Chair of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society (SPI)

 

Full programme  https://www.spiweb.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/programma-giornata-nazionale-sulla-ricerca.pdf

When
20/01/2018
Where
Rome ITALY