Primitive, now: The clinical use of a word

Titolo Rivista RIVISTA DI PSICOLOGIA CLINICA
Autori/Curatori Alessandro Balzaretti
Anno di pubblicazione 2025 Fascicolo 2024/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 11 P. 5-15 Dimensione file 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/rpc2-2024oa18230
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Vedi l'articolo Scarica l'articolo open access

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche.

Clinicians and researchers often use the term “primitive” in reference to emotions and mental states. The widespread use of this term in literature, not only from psychoanalytic tradition, and in professional practice, forces it to explain its meaning. From a cultural psychological background, sensitive to psychoanalytical literature, six possible meanings of the term will therefore be proposed. The aim is to mobilize the self-reflection capacity of the clinician and the educator, so that the relationship does not freeze in the polarity of nature-culture. Finally, it is hypothesized that this term, when referring to the basic needs of some categories of patients, makes space for the ethics and the responsibility, both entirely human, of psychological intervention.

Clinicians and researchers often use the term “primitive” in reference to emotions and mental states. The widespread use of this term in literature, not only from psychoanalytic tradition, and in professional practice, forces it to explain its meaning. From a cultural psychological background, sensitive to psychoanalytical literature, six possible meanings of the term will therefore be proposed. The aim is to mobilize the self-reflection capacity of the clinician and the educator, so that the relationship does not freeze in the polarity of nature-culture. Finally, it is hypothesized that this term, when referring to the basic needs of some categories of patients, makes space for the ethics and the responsibility, both entirely human, of psychological intervention.

Parole chiave:; primitive; mind; regression; instinct; need; cultural psychology

  1. Aron, L. & Bushra, A. (1998). Mutual Regression: Altered States in the Psychoanalytic Situation. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 46, 389-412. DOI: 10.1177/00030651980460020302
  2. Barbieri, G. (2009). Psicologia dinamica. Milano: Edizioni Libreria Cortina.
  3. Barratt, B. B. (2020) Reconsidering Regression in Psychoanalysis: Notes on a Central Yet Controversial Concept and Its Relation to Free Association. Psychoanalytic Review, 107, 99-122. DOI: 10.1521/prev.2020.107.2.99
  4. Boadella, D. (1987). Lifestreams: An Introduction to Biosynthesis. Routledge.
  5. Davis, W. (1997). The biological foundations of the schizoid process. Energy and Character, 28, 1.
  6. Dowling, A. S. (2004). A Reconsideration of the Concept of Regression. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 59, 191-210. DOI: 10.1080/00797308.2004.11800738
  7. Ferenczi, S. (2014). Thalassa. Saggio sulla teoria della genitalità. Raffaello Cortina.
  8. Ferro, A. (2013a) (a cura di). Psicoanalisi oggi. Teoria e tecnica. Carocci.
  9. Ferro, A. (2013b). Experiencing emotions, avoiding emotions: Between Hercules and Poos-in-Boots. In J. Van Buren & S. Alhanati (Eds.) (2013). Primitive mental states (pp. 31-46). Routledge.
  10. Frosh, S. (2013). Psychoanalysis, colonialism, racism. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 33(3), 141-154.
  11. Fryberg, S. A. (2012). Cultural Psychology as a Bridge Between Anthropology and Cognitive Science. Topics in Cognitive Science, 4, 437-444. DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01205.x
  12. Fruggeri, L. (2014). La competenza psicoterapeutica: un costrutto multi-componenziale. Ricerca Psicoanalitica, 25(1): 9-21. DOI: 10.4081/rp.2014.375
  13. Goldsmith, E. (1999). Ecologia della salute, della disoccupazione e della guerra, ovvero: la grande inversione dell’economia e dello stile di vita. Franco Muzzio & C.
  14. Jorba, M., & López-Silva, P. (2024). Mind in action: expanding the concept of affordance. Philosophical Psychology, 1-11. DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2024.2365554
  15. Kris E. (1967). Ricerche psicoanalitiche sull’arte. Einaudi.
  16. Lacan, J. (2010). I classici del pensiero. Il seminario libro VII. L’etica della psicoanalisi. Il seminario libro X. L’angoscia. Mondadori.
  17. Laplanche, J., & Pontalis, J. B. (2003). Enciclopedia della psicoanalisi. Laterza.
  18. Latour, B. (2018). Non siamo mai stati moderni. Eleuthera.
  19. Little, M. I. (1981). Transference Neurosis and Transference Psychosis. J. Aronson.
  20. Lowen, A. (1982). Fear of Life. Macmillan.
  21. Lowen, A. (1993). Il tradimento del corpo. Edizioni Mediterranee.
  22. Moore, J. W. (2023). Ecologia-mondo e crisi del capitalismo. ombre corte.
  23. Morin, E. (2020). Il paradigma perduto. Che cos’è la natura umana?. Mim edizioni.
  24. Orbecchi, M. (2015). Biologia dell’anima. Teoria dell’evoluzione e psicoterapia. Bollati Boringhieri editore.
  25. Recalcati, M. (2017). Contro il sacrificio. Al di là del fantasma sacrificale. Raffaello Cortina.
  26. Reich, W. (1971). Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality. Mary Higgins Trust.
  27. Reich, W. (2016). La funzione dell’orgasmo. Il Saggiatore.
  28. Rizzolo, G. S. (2017). The Specter of the Primitive. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 65, 945-977. DOI: 10.1177/0003065117742408
  29. Rizzolo, G. S. (2016). The Critique of Regression: The Person, the Field, the Lifespan. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 64, 1097-1131. DOI: 10.1177/0003065116679111
  30. Spurling, L. S. (2008). Is there still a place for the concept of ‘therapeutic regression’ in psychoanalysis? The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 89(3), 523-540. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2008.00058.x

Alessandro Balzaretti, Primitive, now: The clinical use of a word in "RIVISTA DI PSICOLOGIA CLINICA" 2/2024, pp 5-15, DOI: 10.3280/rpc2-2024oa18230