Psychoanalysis experienced a remarkable boom in 1960s Italy. One of the areas where psychoanalytic theory disseminated was the world of marketing and the sociology of consumption. Based on the case of the sociologist Francesco Alberoni, we can examine the impact of the theories of Melanie Klein for understanding the behavior of consumers. Similarly, Alberoni's work shows the concerns and uncert...

There is far greater theoretical coherence and clinical value in the concepts of the personal (person-to-person) and the new relationship than in the earlier concept of the “real” relationship. To develop this thesis, the author traces the historical evolution of the concept of the “real” relationship, elucidates its meaning(s), and considers its problematic features in the light of a relationa...

Despite a history of ambivalence, systemic family therapy has shown signs of a re-engagement with psychoanalytic ideas over the past fifteen years. This article revisits the question: why bother with psychoanalytic ideas in family therapy? A brief description of work with a family is used to prompt the theory discussion, which identifies and discusses particular ideas from psychoanalysis that a...

Current progress in the cognitive and affective neurosciences is constantly influencing the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice. However, despite the emerging dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis, the neuronal processes underlying psychoanalytic constructs such as defense mechanisms remain unclear. One of the main problems in investigating the psychodynamic-neuronal re...

The author explores the presence and the essential tension between clarity and ambiguity as processes within our minds that become prominent in psychoanalysis. We learn from aesthetics and literary criticism that ambiguity can shade from taut disorganization to tolerating life's richness; clarity can range from a concrete fixity to a lucid grasp of one's state of mind. This article responds to ...

This study examined whether, in a community sample of Israeli adults (N = 335), benign (i.e., affiliative and self-enhancing) and injurious (i.e., aggressive and self-defeating) humor styles mediated or moderated the relationship between self-criticism and neediness, two traits that confer vulnerability to depression, on the one hand, and levels of depressive symptoms, on the other. There was n...

Challenging an attitude toward fallibility in medical practice which they see as outdated and detrimental to patient care, the authors suggest a new approach to self-evaluation and peer review by physicians. Arguing that knowledge grows from recognition of error, they submit ten proposals aimed at the development of a new professional ethics that would encourage physicians to admit and analyze...

Philosophy of Life ad usum Delphini? How to Tame Fear in the Search for Happiness — Protagonists Moomins Saga Face Danger and Disaster. On Sidelines Hanna Dymel-Trzebiatowska’s Book Philosophical Translator’s Wanderings Moominvalley (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 2019) The essay is based on a review book (2019). interdisciplinary considerations distinguished researcher translation...