Giorgia Margherita

La maternità in donne con Sclerosi Multipla. Una ricerca esplorativa sulle possibili dimensioni di benessere nella malattia

Per le donne con Sclerosi Multipla la maternita rappresenta una tappa estremamente complessa. Il lavoro si propone di esplorare i significati che maternita e malattia assumono per le donne con SM a partire dall’idea che gli aspetti rappresentazionali possano influenzare orientamenti, progetti e scelte. Metodi. Lo studio ha coinvolto 20 donne con Sclerosi Multipla alle quali e stata somministrata un’intervista. I testi delle interviste sono stati analizzati con un’analisi dei cluster mediante il software T-Lab (Lancia, 2004). Risultati. Sono emersi quattro cluster tematici denominati: il ruolo familiare, il dolore del quotidiano, dipendenza dall’area medica, chiudere il cerchio. Tali risultati, interpretati su piano fattoriale, organizzano tre vettori di senso rappresentativi delle dinamiche: dal concreto all’astratto, dal progetto alla ricaduta, dai Servizi di supporto al supporto della famiglia, che evidenziano uno spazio rappresentazionale dove e difficile tenere insieme malattia e maternita. Conclusioni. E stato possibile osservare come alcune dimensioni (l’essere in coppia e conoscere la diagnosi da un maggior tempo) possano configurarsi come fattori di sostegno specifico alla scelta di maternita. Emergono spunti di riflessione sulla necessita di progettare, nei Servizi di cura, interventi permanenti, che integrino aspetti psicologici negli abituali percorsi terapeutici.

Gender violence and shame. The visible and the invisible, from the clinical to the social systems

The traumatic experience of violence is, in its nature, unspeakable. It causes in the victim a deep wound in identity, changes in the dynamics of psychic investments producing a failure of the ability to symbolize, thus breaking the rules that characterize the usual development of thought. Some affections related to the body prevail, above all the shame which expresses itself in characteristics which reinforce the element of trauma. The loss of a capacity to represent and symbolize is not only a psychic dynamic, but it also reproduces itself in the social systems, shaping that zone of “silent concealment”, that drives the phenomenon of gender violence. The psychoanalytical reflection on the relationship between guilt and shame seems to be a priority in dealing with and at the same time highlighting the risk of victim blaming intended in terms of the unconscious defensive dynamics expressed by the social systems. We will consider the importance in the therapeutic intervention of the work of reconstruction and historicization, to be able to reactivate representation which allows the integration and the chance to distinguish the imaginary plane of the traumatic event from the real one. The psychoanalytical approach to the groups provides an interpretative model to articulate the psychic and the social space.

A REVIEW OF ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES IN ITALY: WHERE IS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH GOING?

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nowadays, 65,3 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide. In Europe, Italy is one of the countries with the highest number of asylum seeker arrivals per year and the emergency nature of the present-day migratory flows are increasingly involving researchers and clinicians to come up with and develop new models of research and interventions. This article aims to conduct a review of the Italian psychological research in the field of forced migration in order to systematise the Italian studies, to compare the Italian situation with the international one and to define limits, resources and future directions of current Italian research. A literature review in the databases Scopus, PubMed and Web of Knowledge for documents published from 2012 to 2017 was conducted. From the analysis, twelve articles emerged principally following two main trajectories of investigation: a clinical and mental health-related trajectory and a psychosocial and community-based one. Compared with the wider international field of research, a general underdevelopment of Italian research emerged. Research into protective factors with regard to the development of psychopathological outcomes and on interventions is highly recommended. Results highlighted support for future research on the theme of asylum seekers and refugees. Some cause for reflection as regards levels of criticality, the direction of future research and specific links between research and Italian social policies were given.

A comparison between pro-anorexia and non-suicidal self-injury blogs: From symptom-based identity to sharing of emotions

From a psychodynamic perspective, this paper presents a comparison between pro-anorexia (pro-Ana) and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) blogs, which are all built on the basis of a shared, symptom-based identity. A cluster analysis was performed on 40 Italian blogs through T-Lab software to find dimensions of meaning. Four thematic clusters emerged, which, using factorial mapping, fall onto three axes: from closure on the symptom to recounting the malaise; the pain: from psychic to social; from failure of primary relationships to patterns of relational dysfunction. The two types of blog differ both in terms of content and function. The proAna blogs tend to reinforce a portrayal of anorexia as a lifestyle choice that leaves little space for anything or anyone else. The NSSI blogs reveal aspects of relational support and an ambivalent attitude to pain and discomfort. The different dimensions provide a springboard for discussion on clinical implications.

Italian Validation of the Capacity to Love Inventory: Preliminary Results

Introduction: Within a wider international research project aimed at operationalize the psychodynamic construct of capacity to love (Kernberg, 2011), the Capacity to Love Inventory (CTL-I) is a 41-items self-report questionnaire assessing six dimensions: interest in the life project of the other, basic trust, gratitude, common ego ideal, permanence of sexual passion, loss, and mourning. Objectives: The study is aimed at validating the Italian version of the CTL-I. Method: A total sample of 736 Italian non-clinical adults was administered a checklist assessing socio-demographic variables, and the CTL-I. A Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) was conducted to examine the construct validity of the Italian version of the CTL-I. Only a part of the total sample (320 participants) was administered an additional series of concurrent measures in order to investigate the convergent validity of the CTL-I. Correlations with measures of socio-sexual orientation, quality of romance relations, and psychopathological questionnaires were examined through Pearsons correlation coefficients. Results: CFA results suggested that the Italian CTL-I fully replicated the six-factor structure of the original CTL-I. Cronbachs alpha index provided satisfactory results for all subscales and the correlations with concurrent measures were in expected direction. Conclusion: The results showed promising psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of CTL-I. Implications of the feasibility of the instrument in clinical and psychotherapeutic settings are discussed.

Incidere i limiti. Dalla Body Art all’autolesionismo, considerazioni psicodinamiche sul corpo all’epoca del postumano

Our work questions the theme of corporeity from a psychoanalytic framework, moving from the modalities with which the body experience sets itself at the base of thought considering the variations of psychic functions related to the destructured and restructured experiences of the body that appear nowadays on the contemporaneous scene. In different fields, the one of clinical psychology through the Non-suicidal Self-injury and the one of the art through the extreme form of Body art, will be reflected on the experience of the limit, moving from corporeal borders, that posthuman challenges.