Poetics in the shadow of the other's language: The melancholic discourse of the trilingual poet Amelia Rosselli

In this paper, I propose a psychoanalytic reading of some of the writings of Amelia Rosselli, a trilingual poet who, at the age of seven, lost her father Carlo, who was persecuted and murdered by Mussolini's regime. History and her history conflate into personal and collective trauma which defies human possibilities to work through and mourn. Rosselli's work testifies to such predicament of the human subject of the 20th century, his/her dislocation, alienation and internal irreconcilable divisions. In particular I examine Diary in three tongues, which is the most autobiographical of her works and a self‐analytic piece, written after the conclusion of her second analysis. In the Diary, Rosselli employs textual strategies which convey the fragmentation and destructuring of language, where her traumatic experience resides as a wound inflicted to the symbolic order. I propose that her writings contain her unconscious memories in an estranged and melancholic language which becomes the crucible to express her impossible mourning, in a complex mixture of Eros and Thanatos which allowed her to survive psychically and to create a very personal experimental poetic discourse which made her a literary figure of international acclaim. My primary engagement will be with Freud's theory of mourning and melancholia and its successive elaboration by Kristeva, who maintains that the melancholic discourse finds its expression in the pre‐verbal and infra‐verbal aspects of language, which she calls ‘semiotics’, in dialectic articulation with its symbolic components. Drawing on literary texts, significant inferences can be made on the psychoanalytic listening to the prosodic aspects of language as the carrier of inchoate forms of representation of that which exceeds language: trauma, raw affects, mnemic traces, that is, the unrepresented and/or unrepresentable.     

Proxemics in Couple Interactions: Rekindling an Old Optic

Utilizing as a lens the interpersonal implications of physical interpersonal distances in social contexts (a set of variables present during the professional discourse during the 1960s and 1970s, to then fade away), this article explores interactive process displayed by the protagonic couple in Bela Bartok's opera “Bluebeard Castle,” an exercise aimed at underlining the value of maintaining proxemics as an explicit level of observation for clinical practice and interpersonal research.     

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Interactive Test of Interpersonal Behavior (ITIB): a pilot study examining interpersonal deficits in chronic depression

Chronic depression is assumed to be caused and maintained by interpersonal deficits. We describe the development and psychometric evaluation of the Interactive Test of Interpersonal Behavior (ITIB) that we developed for self‐assessment of these deficits. Participants with chronic depression (CD, N = 15), episodic depression (ED, N = 15) and healthy controls (HC, N = 15) participated in this pilot study. They completed the ITIB and a number of pen and paper questionnaires including the Lübeck Questionnaire of Preoperational Thinking (LQPT) and the inventory of interpersonal problems (IIP). The ITIB was highly acceptable for use in these participants. Internal consistency for the ITIB was adequate for group comparisons (Cronbach's alpha = 0.649). Item‐total correlations indicated adequate discriminatory power of five of the six items. The ITIB correlated moderately with the LQPT (r = 0.524) and the IIP (r = –0.568). The ITIB score differed significantly between the diagnostic groups (ANOVA F(2,42) = 6.22, p = 0.004). It was the only measure that – albeit at a trend level – was associated with diagnostic group (CD vs. ED) on multinomial logistic regression analysis (B = 0.049 ± 0.029; OR 1.051; p = 0.088). We found preliminary evidence that the ITIB is an acceptable and psychometrically adequate measure of interpersonal behavior that distinguishes between patients with CD and patients with ED. If replicated with an improved version of the test, our results could support the hypothesis that having interpersonal problems is a core deficit in patients with CD.     

BETWEEN KNOWING AND BELIEVING: SALVAGING ILLUSION'S RIGHTFUL PLACE IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

Illusion has historically received insufficient psychoanalytic attention, even though it plays an indispensable and adaptive role that helps protect individuals from becoming traumatized by the most psychically noxious aspects of reality. Trauma is mitigated by an individual's knowing about the existence of such realities yet simultaneously believing them non‐existent, with neither position granted exclusivity. Psychoanalytic theory is surprisingly predicated on the employment of illusions that picture an individual capable of controlling the potentially traumatic actions of others, just so long as the individual effectively manages his own intrapsychic processes (wishes, fantasies, impulses, etc.). The role of illusion in everyday life is highlighted.     

Too much – not enough. The representation of the body and the meaning of symptoms in patients with eating disorders

Eating disorders cover different clinical syndromes, all of which are characterized by an immense focus on food, body and weight, an endless attempt to combat the body and by a fluctuation between ‘too much and not enough’ on different levels (e.g., behaviourally, mentally, physically).

The aim of this article is to contribute to the psychoanalytic understanding of eating disorders, to highlight the vital importance of the symptoms as a psychological survival strategy and to illustrate similarities between eating disordered patients as well as the very different pathways that can lead to an eating disorder. Two clinical cases are presented, one very shortly and one in more detail.     

Shared Traumatic Reality and Boundary Theory: How Mental Health Professionals Cope With the Home/Work Conflict During Continuous Security Threats

ABSTRACT

In a shared traumatic reality, mental health professionals and their clients are exposed to the same communal disaster. Both living and working in the same high-stress community can create a conflict between the professional's work and his or her private life. The author analyzed three focus groups consisting of 30 mental health professionals who worked with traumatized populations in a missile-stricken area in southern Israel. The professionals’ experience was explored through the lens of boundary theory by examining the ways in which they created and maintained boundaries between the different domains of their lives. Findings demonstrated that these professionals presented a continuum of segmentation and integration of the domains as suggested by boundary theory, when both living and working in a highly stressed environment. The discussion deals with possible costs and benefits of the boundary theory continuum.     

Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors

An earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010, killing than over 230,000 and displacing millions. Following this disaster, a culturally specific narrative model was developed for leaders (i.e., teachers, clergy, etc.) to treat trauma symptomatology among Haitians. The Haitian local leaders (n=85) were treated with the narrative model. Data were collected and analyzed, and the results were significant. The leaders’ trauma symptoms decreased following treatment. Following the narrative treatment, they were trained to utilize the model. Recommendations for future research and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Unveiling the War Child Syndrome: Finnish War Children's Experiences of the Evacuation to Sweden During WWII from a Lifetime Perspective

During World War II, a total of 48,628 Finnish children were evacuated to Sweden and placed into temporary foster care. We studied the long-term effects of early separation among aging evacuees using a mixed-methods approach. The purpose was to understand how the evacuees experienced the evacuation event from a lifetime perspective and to determine the features of a possible war child syndrome. The evacuees expressed problems related to loss of confidence, detachment or rootlessness, and unworthiness or rejection. Feelings of rejection and unworthiness provoked shame in many of the reports. Our results suggest that support interventions should focus on processing these painful experiences.     

Trauma-Informed Medical Care: Patient Response to a Primary Care Provider Communication Training

Trauma exposure predicts mental disorders and health outcomes; yet there is little training of primary care providers about trauma’s effects, and how to better interact with trauma survivors. This study adapted a theory-based approach to working with trauma survivors, Risking Connection, into a 6-hour CME course, Trauma-Informed Medical Care (TI-Med), to evaluate its feasibility and preliminary efficacy. We randomized four primary care sites to training or wait-list conditions; PCPs at wait-list sites were trained after reassessment. Primary care providers (PCPs) were Family Medicine residents (n = 17; 2 sites) or community physicians (n = 13; 2 sites). Outcomes reported here comprised a survey of 400 actual patients seen by the PCPs in the study. Patients, mostly minority, completed surveys before or after their provider received training. Patients rated PCPs significantly higher after training on a scale encompassing partnership issues. Breakdowns showed lower partnership scores for those with trauma or posttraumatic stress symptoms. Future studies will need to include more specific trauma-related outcomes. Nevertheless, this training is a promising initial approach to teaching trauma-informed communication skills to PCPs.