Il fascino indiscreto della psicoanalisi (stream of consciousness)

The discreet charm of psychoanalysis (stream of consciousness) - Based on her experience as editor of the Book Reviews section of the Italian quarterly journal Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, the author infers some general remarks about the changes occurred over the last decades in the practice and theory of psychoanalysis, its related power structure, and the perception of its peculiarity by the public. In Italy, such changes are part of the boom of psychological practices, linked to the advent of the consumer society. Encountering mass culture and the “psy” area, psychoanalysis has gradually abandoned its basic principles, such as the methodology of questioning, doubting and learning to bear pain and grief. Pursuing success, psychoanalysis became pluralistic, relativistic and aspecific, turning into one among the many fashionable psychologies. Such developments, involving the whole psy area, are seen on the background of the current drifting of cultural, social and political values. [KEY WORDS: crisis of psychoanalytic theory and practice, mass psychologies, literature review, consumer society, cultural drift];

Antonella Mancini, Il fascino indiscreto della psicoanalisi (stream of consciousness) in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 4/2008, pp 457-470, DOI: