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GruppoAdozioni

Juno, Claire, Camille: How cinema recounts the experience of pregnancy in adolescents

Abstract

The paper proposes, through the analysis of three films, “Juno”, “Brodeuses” (The embroiderers) and “17 girls”, some reflections on the difficulties of the encounters of adolescents with their own generating capacity. The pregnancies arise from profoundly different contexts and deals with the uncomfortable relationship in becoming a woman that seems to be connected with the difficulties encountered in connection with a mother experienced as unable to fulfil a supporting role.
Motherhood is seen in some cases as an attempt to get out of this difficultly entwined relationship full of strongly felt unresolved problems and unsatisfied needs in which the pregnancies are called upon to fill, in others, a difficulty of representation in the somatic psychic is expressed. This aspect shows the difficulty of facing the changes in ones own body and its new potential, which are tested on the unconscious level during pregnancy.
The films also speak of the difficulty encountered in the becoming of women and mothers when the fathers are fleeing from their function of separating elements of the mother daughter couple Read more

MusicaGruppo

Music, group and group analytic music therapy in adolescence

Abstract

The adolescent subject is required to recover their sound envelope bruised by puberty. All of the sound world and in particular the body’s sonority must be reorganized to guarantee the narcissistic continuity of the pubescent child. Music, especially when it accompanies the group of peers, offers teenagers a way to reconstitute a sound envelope. In more pathological cases, group analytic music therapy will help acquire this function. Read more

PolifoniaCorpo

Group therapy with bodily mediation for obese teenagers. Therapeutic containment when loosing weight

Abstract our reflection centers on the utility of the psychoanalytic body-based group as a way to take charge of teenager obesity. Indeed, the therapeutic group can work as a containment for obese teenagers when they are losing weight. Indeed, in this period they show a lack of both transitionality and psychic containment which results in a turbulent unconscious image of the body. In this article we will underline the psychic and bodily dimensions of these girls that lose weight and, at the same time, the individual and group challenges of a body-me Read more

EscherAdolescenti

“I have a recurring dream…” Experiencing or imagining? Reclusion, proto-depression, peer group

Abstract

Adolescence is considered a specific stage of human beings, well distinct from childhood and adulthood. Not a middle way, but a condition in itself, with specific characteristics, anguishes, and defense modalities. After a brief introduction on the hypothesis developed by psychoanalyst Armando B. Ferrari in The Eclipse of the Body, who considers the body as a unique object of the mind, which is produced by the body itself, Adolescence is described as one of the first moments in which the body emerges from the eclipse. Short clinical vignettes show anxieties and defenses, and focus on the use made at this age of resources such as literature, poetry, movies, the imaginary world, social networks, and the peer group. Read more

EscherAdolescenti

Adolescence, adolescents and new family systems

Abstract

This article explores the consequences of children’s adolescence on the family system. An introduction provides the theoretical framework of the phenomena described. On one side, the complexity theory and constructivist philosophy, and on the other, a psychoanalytic hypothesis reshaping the relationship between Read more

EscherAdolescenti

Therapeutic Crossroads: Adolescents, Families, Groups. Experiences in a Dedicated Service

Abstract

The authors reflect on the cultural and macro-social transformations which are effecting adolescents and their families and the consequent youth difficulties and possible developments.
Different aspects of working in a Psychological Counselling Service with young people between eighteen and twenty-five and their families are illustrated; the therapeutic team’s aim is to offer on different levels and with different tools (individual, family and group therapies, Communities, therapeutic teams) a “colpo d’ala” (‘at one stroke’), in other words, an immediate opportunity for those in need of support to get back on their individual ‘road’ to recovery. Attention is focalized on the theme of clinical work utilizing a network of different proposals, made necessary to deal with the condition of today’s adolescents in difficulty, who above all have serious deficiencies in their capacity to develop and maintain real affective and social relationships, Read more

EscherAdolescenti

Adolescent group, institution and virtual world: the negotiation of boundaries

Abstract

In this paper the authors propose a reflection on how digital era has changed the communication and relationships among adolescents. The focus is placed on how the unlimited possibilities offered by the virtual world can rinforce the omnipotence of adolescence. The information and communication technologies (ICT) allow the adolescents to reduce the face to face confrontation and to replace the direct experience with a mediated perception. The purpose of this study is to explore how the new “rules” of the virtual world collude with Read more

EscherAdolescenti

Adolescents and smartphones in art-therapy laboratory

Abstract

This article deals with a group psychotherapy with adolescents in the particular context of an art-therapy laboratory. It aims to describe new possible settings with adolescents and demonstrate how new elements like smartphones can be used as a creative means in a therapeutic relation, just like it is possible to use drawing or Read more

EscherAdolescenti

Stay connected. The use of videogames in the treatment of adolescents

Abstract

This article aims to focus on how the occasional use of videogames in psychoanalytic sessions with adolescents can be useful to share the adolescent experience during sessions. The distinctive characters of the analytic relationship with adolescents are underlined, and, specifically, the need to share the analytic experience – training ground for life – with adolescents using an approach less “interpretative” and more based on curiosity and listening. The meaning of the term “experience” for an adolescent and within the analytic relationship is clarified. Read more

EscherAdolescenti

Stories and therapeutic groups of adolescents between dream and reality

Abstract

We are going to present the experience about an open therapeutic group for adolescents, aged from 13 to 17 years,  followed by the Community Mental Health in Treviglio (BG). They are affected by personality disorders, conduct disorders, mood disorders, sometimes in comorbidity with mental retardation or previous developmental disorders. The therapeutic groups have been conducted with the therapeutic technique of story-telling and photographic language, using common digital devices as smart-phones or personal computers. Read more

GruppoRito

Cybernetic Rituals and Rituality in the community of Digital Brothers: clinical and theoretical reflections

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the theme of ritual in adolescence. Firstly, the function of ritual in adolescence and related pubertal transformation are discussed. The crisis of rituals in post-modern societies is mentioned and possible subsequent outcomes of that, in terms of youngsters’ developmental path, discussed. Particular attention is given to possible ritual-like functions offered by cyberspace and videogames. Specifically, an attempt is made to distinguish those phenomena that serve as a ritual the youth’s development from those frankly Read more

EdipoGruppo

Self-generation as a structuring defense that testifies to the importance of groupal illusion in adolescence

Abstract.

The author, comparing groups of children and groups of adolescents with the same device, shows that the Oedipus complex does not have the same organizer function.
In adolescents, the primal scene, linked to its passivity, integrates them into an unbearable infantile sexual scene, and by passing through self-generation and gender complementarity, they can finally represent homo-generational sexuality. Read more

EdipoGruppo

Dissolution of boundaries and identity crisis in adolescence in the Network time: a dual /group approach

Abstract

The author, after having identified the psycho-socio-structural modifications consequent to the pervasiveness of the virtual, proposes a reading of the adolescent identity construction starting from the risks coming from the dissolution of the typical boundaries of the digital age. Starting from some dual and group clinical situations, the need for a review of the psychotherapeutic setting to reach “hyperconnected” and potentially “borderless” adolescents is underlined. Taking into account the “limit” – lived and experienced Read more

Senso

Adolescent mind and neurosciences

Abstract


Adolescent Mind Transformation and Neurosciences. We have lately been observing a great development both in neurophysiologic and in neuropsychological research aiming to explain and integrate, on  behalf of some scientists, how scientific breakthroughs may be of utility  in confirming the basics of the psychoanalytic theory. Neurosciences have lately been defining the structure and functions of the brain systems processing the information about the relationship with the caregiver and underlying the subjectuality and intersubjectivity mechanisms. Thanks to
brain imaging we can nowadays observe the progressive maturation of the brain in adolescence, especially the complete development of the frontal lobe which, from the Read more

MatisseIcaro

The ordalic scene and the work of individuation/separation at adolescence

Abstract

This research studies the impact of the ordeal scene (old eng: ordal judgement) as being a mode of symbolization, specifically primary symbolization. We questioned the function of going through the experience of flirting with danger and with death that older adolescents use. For this analysis, we built an analyzer named the contact ordal.
It confirms the value of going back over, in differed action, these remaining scenes that are awaiting symbolization.
The contact ordal illustrates how there individuals attempt to re appropriate the residue-traces of the experience of ambiguity, and  in the background, reveal the existence of dangerous primal fantasies with a haunting effect. These fantasies enabled us to observe that going through the ordal experience is accompanied by the predominance of two major phantasms:The phantasm Read more

MatisseIcaro

Adolescents in the Hospital:accidents and pre-traumatic psychological dynamics

Abstract

Objective: To explore the psychological characteristics and relationship factors pertaining to adolescents admitted to surgical and orthopaedic hospital wards for accidents of various kinds, in order to increase knowledge of the dynamics which contribute to accident risk among adolescents.

Method: A sample of 205 subjects (between 14 and 24 years of age) compared with a control group of 205 subjects was studied. Clinical semi-structured interviews were conducted by six psychotherapists specializing in adolescent psychotherapy. A modified Defence Mechanism Inventory was employed. Categorical data from the interviews were analysed by x square tests and DMI scales scores were analysed by two-factor analyses of variance. A cluster analysis of the entire sample based on DMI scores and all categorical variables, except the case/control variable, was done using SPAD.

Results: Young people who have had accidents, and in particular those who have had more than one, appear to have more problems than controls. These problems cover various areas of their present and past. In addition to these difficulties, there are two important psychodynamic elements: quality of self- esteem and how they are attempting to deal with the Read more

MatisseIcaro

Adolescence and Reckless Driving: Critical Reflections

Abstract

Analysing the data of a previous study, the authors present a number of considerations on the problem of adolescent reckless driving, noting that quantitative studies furnish a sort of snapshot of adolescent risky behaviour but do not equip one to understand the psychological significance of the phenomenon.  What they criticize is the psychological construct designated  sensation seeking, understood as a personality trait specific to the adolescent and young adult population, and the construct concerned with  self-regulatory efficacy, that is the inability to resist the pressures exerted by their peers to undertake dangerous actions. These constructs, which have been excessively generalized in psychological research, correspond to complex dynamics typical of an adolescence whose mental functioning is  dissociated, that is belonging neither to the world of adults nor to that of children nor to that of adolescents, which brings the need for a range of experiences, some of which may be physically very dangerous, in the course of the subject s ongoing response to the problems of adolescence.  This mental state belongs to a phase of life but also to a structural organization of the mind that can be reawakened in the course of an individual s life experience, which implies an intrapsychic dynamic that cannot be denied. The psychological constructs utilized, though susceptible to criticism from a methodological point of view, Read more

FormeCircolari

Presentation: Anorexia, Adolescence, Group

In 2004, Funzione Gamma introduced the 14th edition of “Groups with anorexic patients: therapeutic factors”. Today, we are glad to present the continuation of the dialogue we started back then, to further proceed in our attempt to combine theoretical model and clinical intervention in the 24th edition of “Anorexia, Adolescence, Group”. The title already hints that the theme of identity constitutes the invisible path that will guide us through this edition. As Rouchy (1987) writes, “It is impossible to declare our identity without naming one of the multiple groups to which we belong”. As human beings, we live in groups. Our sense of identity arises and develops from these various affiliations. The group is an essential element of human existence: men are born in groups, they play in groups, they fight in groups and against groups, and all religious and heathen rites are celebrated in groups. In the field of neuroscience, research has shown how the mind develops through relationships. The development of our nervous system is an experience-dependant process: in the early stages of life, significant relationships are the main source of experience, which also modulate genic expression at a brain level. Relationships with others have a great influence on the brain. The circuits that mediate social experience, are closely related to those Read more

FormeCircolari

Individuation of the self and eating disorders in adolescence

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present an etiopathogenetic hypothesis of eating disorders (DCA) during adolescence, from the theoretical model of Self Psychology and clinical experience gained in the field. According to this hypothesis, a particular structural deficit of the Self and familial relations lay the groundwork that structures an eating disorder, in a Read more

FormeCircolari

Anorexia, Adolescence, Group

Abstract

The overview of the anorexic disorder may be confronted through two different axes: one that proceeds through the intra-psychic depths, in search of personal factors which impede the fulfilment of individual personality, and a social axis, which pinpoints through the history of the community the roots concerning the diffusion of anorexia in Read more

FormeCircolari

Anorexia: the risk of a suicidal nihilism to survive in adolescence

Abstract

Death as what makes possible the anorexic subject’s referring to other, in the happened admission of the unsubstantiality of what in which he previously pleasing, strove himself: the assurance of the Other’s jouissance (Lacan J., 1973). The «will of nothingness […] turned against the most basic life’s presuppositions» (Nietzsche, 1887) imposes itself in the dislike for human and corporeal, as what allows a feeling of uniqueness and extraordinariness that soon reveals the subject as a prisoner of the conformity and homogeneity of an “uniform- body” which springs the reality of its sacrifice Read more

Campo

Group Field in the Subjective Adolescent Constitution

Abstract

In puberty-adolescence, the group allows and favours in the adolescent the pathway towards subjectivation, transmitting a feeling of social belonging through the use of games of reciprocal identifications. At the end of this process, the adolescent may think similarly, but at the same time differently, to the other members of the group, who are travel companions in the fundamental step from endogamy to exogamy. This transition guarantees the existence of cultural order which forms the basis of the social discussion and collectivity Read more

PicassoSaltimbanchi

Presentation of clinical material about a therapeutic group of teenagers

Abstract

The author presents a group of duration of one year, which is constituted by six members aged between 16 and 22 minutes. The sessions are weekly duration of an hour and thirty minutes. In the first session the therapist has been an active dreamer with his eyes open for the entire group. Through the image of the “History endless” returned to the members of their existential position of “waiting for the dust grains destructiveness of anything,” however, able to bring to life “the world of Fantasy.” Making possible an imaginative capacity even on content so deadly has mobilized members in the hope of salvation, enabling them to project themselves in a constructive future. In the next session in fact, the boys lead the group through dreams-nightmares, anxieties related to their representation of self. The character Zero represents the part of self-restraint miserable and therefore feared. Its representation in ridiculous allowed them to tolerate, accept and make be faced by themselves. In this way the children were able to produce a dramatic shift from existential emptiness (Zero), forced to imagine a magical and omnipotent force (God), which alone can deal with it, hope to be able to use at least “that one grain of dust, “as a Read more

Campo

Group Field and School Context.

Abstract

We have chosen the previous quotation because we consider it accounts for some unconscious beliefs shared by the social groups which are part of the community, such us parents, journalists, teachers, students, politicians and leaders. Based on Bion’s approach to groups, we could say that the aforementioned groups show beliefs that make them work as Basic Assumption Groups, either because school represents the << Leader>> or because it embodies << the Messiah>> who solves whatever happens, or because school turns dangerous and becomes the object to << Fight>>; in short, because school does not fulfill the expectations pinned on it. This is what we have found in discourses and representations analyzed in a research on << Violence Breaking out at Schools>> conducted through the years 2005 and 2011.
The research placed focus on the different teaching levels in Southern Greater Buenos Aires (Province of Buenos Aires) and Northeastern area of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
On this article, we focus on reflections upon the groups from the secondary level of official education, based on the sample upon which the fieldwork was conducted. We will deal with the collective representations parents, teachers and adolescents have about << what they feel, think and do as integral groups of school as institution>> when some critical incident breaks out in school scene.
Surveys, interviews and participant observations were carried out so as to identify what each group understands by << violence>>, what Read more

MatisseFormazione

Group psychotherapies: new answers to new questions

Abstract

Group for the Recovery of Functions wants to be a new therapeutic resource available to operators, with its specificity. Specificity which consists not only of a group setting as a scenario that generates symbols i.e. a place where it is possible to conceive of what was until then inconceivable but also of limited time, of generational transference investments on therapist, of positive prospective and constructive tension of the peer group. So, GRF as a different answer, that is able to surprise, that has as a main aim to re-ignite the psychological engine of the patient, and especially allowing the patient to rediscover that the energies for change Read more