Anxiety theory is very important in Freudian psychoanalysis, particulary the concept of signal anxiety which is central to unconscious conflict. According to the relational paradigm, anxiety is an interpersonal and affect regulation problem. Through affective neuroscience, Sullivan's interpersonal theory and Fonagy's mentalization theory, it is possible to develop a relational theory of anxiety. The amygdala plays an important role in implicit learning of relational representations characterized by anxiety, which inhibit affective regulation. Finally, some limits relating to the integration of psychoanalysis and neuroscientific research are presented.
This article aims at taking a look at the psychologist’s role in juvenile community centres. There are different kinds of Residential Child Care Centres and one constant-as to them- is represented by the psychologist, an important and significant figure in all of the centres aiming at taking in minors, at understanding their needs and at identifying and spotting their skills. Every day, each meeting is given up to the laborious construction of a sense of sharing, that shouldn’t neglect or overlook and demean the minor, that shouldn’t make even the peculiar importance of the community centre, that shouldn’t standardize all the good practices that make diversity a richness.This is the programmatic aim of each juvenile reception center, but, in everyday’s routines, we have to take account of situations like “chaos”, “suffering”, “exhaustion”, “ bother”, “aggressiveness”, equally experienced by all the ones who are involved in the centre’s life. These conflicts, in a group context, have to be identified, to be made clear, to be provided of significance.As stated by Jaques (1989), only through the engagement of all the members in an analysis of the implicit rules that are related to the work structure/organization, it’s possible to activate a development process (working through) of the worries and anxiety tinged with the functions and the objectives of the belonging social institution. Burnout, related to an individual or a work group, represents in this case a symptom that can’t be attributable to any individual or group psychopathology, but it’s a valuable and unequivocal sign of the fact that the centre is “ill” (Giunta et al., 2010).
The purpose of this article is to explain a new theoretical paradigm about expressions and interpretation of human suffering, with using psychoanalytic instruments and theories. So the author will examine the different connotations of suffering, paying more attention to the components from which it is composed, that is the parameters used to describe it. Of course, the authentic meaning of suffering does not correspond to a simple absence of well-being of the psychic apparatus: quite the opposite, pain produces psychic work. So it will be far from the author's intentions to insert the object of the argument in a reductionist point of view(the suffering as a sort of psychic nociception) or in cartesian point of view(suffering as resulting from a cause/effect connections). The meaning - mentioned in the main title - is given by the subject to his difficult “art of living”.
Studies state that prisoners adapt to an environment usually depicted as painful, fearful and aggressive by wearing emotional “masks” of “hyper-masculinity”, which hide their vulnerabilities and the true self. These masks may also generate behaviours, thoughts or a self-perception that are dysfunctional for the post-prison adjustment. “The Talking Mask” is a new useful art-therapy tool that has been created recently by the author of this paper. It uses pictures to improve the self-awareness of inmates and help to shape a post-prison identity. The goal of the technique is to help prisoners to watch within themselves without masks, while the aim of this paper is to introduce the technique and to show its working principles with a single case. art therapy, prison, forensic psychology, offender rehabilitation, defence mechanisms; psychodynamic psychology
The Oedipus myth has a special meaning for the history of psychoanalysis. An analysis of the historical variation of the myth treatment within the theatre gives new insights about the possible interpreation. Comparing the various psychoanalytic interpretations of Sophocles’ tragedy also gives interesting indications on the same subject .
