Why are panic attacks so widespread today?
What relationship exists between this acute symptom and contemporary society?
What new insights and methods can Gestalt psychotherapy offer in order to face up to and resolve this problem?
This book was written with the aim of answering these questions by considering panic attacks both as an expression of personal history and as a phenomenon emerging from a historical period characterized by uncertainty, fragmentation, and complexity. Panic attacks can be read as symptoms of a widespread and indefinite social malaise, a manifestation of the fragility and of the knotty problems that characterize the postmodern context. Clinical discourse is interwoven with a social outlook throughout the text, since both of these perspectives are necessary for those who wish to understand and care for patients suffering from this disorder. From this point of view, panic is revealed to be an acute and sometimes unbearable condition, which nonetheless can provide a valuable opportunity for opening up new avenues of experience in the individual's life. Panic attacks can represent the beginning of a journey that will lead the patient towards different and more up-to-date creative solutions.
This volume is the fruit of the theoretical and clinical reflections of teachers on Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Programs at the Istituto di Gestalt H.C.C, Italy. Its various chapters provide an original reading of the cultural and clinical context from which this disorder arises, revealing new theoretical and therapeutic prospects.

Gianni Francesetti (Ed.), psychiatrist and Gestalt psychotherapist, teaches on the Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Programs of the Istituto di Gestalt H.C.C., Italy. He is an Associate Member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. He is the SIPG (Italian Gestalt Psychotherapy Association) representative to the EAGT (European Association for Gestalt Therapy) and a member of the executive board of the FIAP (Italian Federation of Psychotherapy Associations). He is on the editorial board of the journal Quaderni di Gestalt and of Studies in Gestalt Therapy. Dialogical bridges. He has authored articles, chapters, and books in the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy. He lives in Turin where he works as a clinician and supervisor.