Search

This comment on Bottaccioli & Bottaccioli’s (2024a) article critically analyzes Franz Alexander’s role in developing contemporary psychosomatics in both its innovative aspects and limitations. On the one hand, Alexander contributed to emancipating the explanation of physical symptoms from the classical approach of the early 20th century stiffened on the model of hysterical conversion and promoted the organization of the international psychosomatic movement, including the Italian one. On the other hand, his limitations mainly concern the theoretical approach typical of 20th century psychoanalysis: adopting a one-dimensional model centered on intrapsychic conflict and the indeterminacy – necessary for the time – of a biological “X” factor as mediator. Instead, in the second half of the 20th century, a deficit-centered model of explanation (e.g., alexithymia) and complexity (e.g., biopsychosocial model) emerged, in which various moderating biomedical, psychological, and socio-cultural factors assume different relative weights in the explanation of physical illnesses and the clinical management of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty years after the death of Franz Alexander, it is necessary to investigate what is alive and what is dead in his thought about psychosomatics, focusing in particular on the notions of emotion and vegetative neurosis as central to his model of explanation. It is then worth noting, in the light of the developments after Alexander, the today’s difficulty in supporting psychosomatics as an autonomous discipline, to the point of questioning the legitimacy of the expression itself: Bottaccioli & Bottaccioli’s (2024a) proposal to identify it with Psycho-Neuro-EndocrineImmunology (PNEI) must be measured in this problematic context. In any case, the always valid need remains, already supported by Alexander, for a unitary, “holistic” consideration of the human being, sick and healthy. However, this is a paradigm that has to be justified and clarified conceptually in the actual role it plays as an inspirer of research and specific explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems posed by Leonardo’s pathographies written by Freud are examined. The historical path of the problem of the relationship between genius and psychopathology is reconstructed, showing that psychoanalysis fits into a very active vein at the end of the 19th century, expressing different theoretical approaches with which Freud relates. The interest for the problem then continued, with alternate answers, until the current days. The distortions made by Freud in Leonardo’s pathographical description are examined; these distortions are extensively examined by several authors, which, however, is not distant from what Freud implements in his other works, nor from what other pathographists of the time did. It is a common behavior in the history of science and well known in modern epistemology that identifies in the development of theories also the importance of rhetorical tools with which scientists support them. It is emphasized that one cannot read particular psychological aspects in these Freudian behaviors, making in fact a pathography of the author of pathographies, but only lead his work to the coherence of the historical contexts in which he operates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Track circuits (TC) are special electrical circuits composed in part of the rails of the tracks, Electrical signals are circulated in them by which it is possible to determine the status of free (no rolling stock) or occupied (rolling stock presence) within a controlled portion of track can be determined. They therefore represent a fundamental element of the Control command and Signalling Sub-System (CCS) whose operation has a significant impact on the safety and regularity of railway operations. In this paper, the problem of proper TC modeling and simulation setup for the purposes of the issues of interest to be analyzed will be addressed. The discussion will analyze several case studies of interest for Class B systems referring further ones to subsequent publications. The method presented here, excluding the electrical modeling part of the track, consists of a generic method developed by the author during his experience on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freud’s lecture given on December 1, 1909, at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society on Leonardo da Vinci is examined. This lecture is a forerunner of his later article Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood (Freud, 1910b). An attempt is made to emphasize the inconsistency between Freud’s hypotheses and the historical data by then at his disposal. Avoiding entering Freud’s vulture slip that many scholars have pointed out and Freud never acknowledged, concerns are expressed about Freud’s required documentation in the field of art history and about the method he employed for the portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci’s personality. It seems that Freud willingly avoided historical data choosing almost entirely to rely on applied psychoanalysis widely employing his own phantasies in attempting to overcome the paucity of knowledge on Leonardo da Vinci’s childhood. Freud himself later acknowledged that his 1910 paper was partly a fictional story along the lines of Mereskovskij’s 1895 book on Leonardo. A crucial inconsistency of this lecture, that will not be amended in his paper of 1910, relates to the fact that Freud changed into a phantasy what Leonardo had reported as a childhood memory. Many scholars have taken for granted this shift so that they talked about Leonardo’s “phantasy” or “dream”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Viennese historian Johannes Reichmayr has edited the Collected Works of the psychoanalyst Paul Parin (1916-2009) in 19 volumes, published by the Viennese publisher Mandelbaum from 2018 to 2024. A pioneer of ethnopsychoanalysis, Parin has lived psychoanalysis as a form of social critique and political action, whose gradual and systematic articulation comes out very clearly from his Collected Works. Parin’s works are reconstructed in great detail in the context of his life, of the Zurich Psychoanalytic Seminar (PSZ) founded by him, and of his close collaboration with the journal Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane. The same is true for his successful literary activity, and for his participation in political life, documented as they are by a whole series of autobiographical papers and by various collections of letters, as it is shown also in the light of volumes 9 and 10, the latter being centered around “The burning problems of our times” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: the increase of Mean Corpuscolar Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC) in the Complete Blood Count (CBC) test is a complex issue, deserving great attention. Erytrocytes (RBC) count by impedance and the photometric hemoglobin (HGB) measurement can be influenced by both biological variables (cold agglutinins, lipemia, icterus, hemolysis, RBC alterations) and pre-analytical factors (collection, storage and transport of the sample). In this paper, the Complete Blood Count-Optical (CBC-O) algorithm is evaluated for the identification of the cause of the MCHC increase and for the suggested corrective action to correctly report the CBC parameters. Methods: 255 samples, collected with K2-EDTA anticoagulant, for the CBC test were used. The algorithm was triggered after the reticulocytes reflex testing (XN-RET) using the XN hematology analyzer (Sysmex), when MCHC was >365 g/L. The CBC-O tool uses a number of RBC and HGB measures and indices. Results: the samples were classified by the CBC-O algorithm into 5 groups according to the causes of the MCHC increase: cold agglutinins (n=70), cold agglutinins and HGB interferences (n=10), HGB interferences (n=6), RBC pathologies or hemolysis (n=32) and unclear situations with normal RBC profile (n=137). Discussion: MCHC elevation is a rare occurrence in routine daily practice, but it needs to be managed properly. The CBC-O algorithm is a useful tool since, in a short time, it allows to give indications on the probable causes of the increase and to report correct erythrocyte indices, without the need to treat the sample, which would otherwise lengthen the turn around time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the clinical case of a couple psychoanalysis, the paper shows the complexity of the relationship between jealousy and the primary relationship experienced by each partner. The author shows how jealousy with its enigmatic aspects tends to mask pragmatic infantile dimensions connected to emotion and affect regulation (Atlas, 2023) and embodies a reactualization of the aesthetic conflict theorised by Meltzer (1981). The focus is on the dynamics of recognition in the couple and in the transference with the analyst: jealousy leads the partners not to recognize each other and not to recognize themselves; the analytical work opens for them a freer and deeper path of knowledge capable of tolerating ambivalence and complexity, towards shared thinkability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author addresses the issue of relationship between the organ transplantation and the migratory experience. In the transplant practice the organs “migrate”, prolonging their own existence and at the same time ensuring life to the recipient. The experience of organ transplantation shocks not only the body, but also the sense of Self, and the integration process is very complicated, because the hospitality is inseparable from the intrusion. The alienating experience of transplantation reveals the foreign in our own bodies. The new organ, in fact, is an intensily ambiguous object, that evokes the Freudian concept of Unheimlich. In this contribution the author tries to identify some analytical paths that could favour the psychosomatic integration of transplanted organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several conferences on the theme of revelation have been organized in French-speaking countries over the last half-century. The first, in 1977, brought together authors such as Ricoeur and Lévinas. The most recent, in 2016 and 2021, included papers by Falque and Marion. This article, which focuses on Falque, highlights the developments in phenomenology on the question of revelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over twenty years public institutions and foundations committed in cultural heritage curation and preservation worked up methodologies, strategies and techniques for long-term digital preservation of digital resources. Thanks to a relevant number of initiatives and services carried on by international institutions and specialized agencies, public and private libraries reached a high level of awareness in this field which requires continuous adaptation due to the constant evolution of publishing industry and the rapid emergence of Open Science. After a quick review of digital preservation milestones, this article looks at some emerging trends and issues which characterize the constant transformation of digital preservation landscape. Dynamic generated digital contents and Open Science to fulfil findability, accessibility, interoperability and reuse (FAIR) of digital assets are engaging new challenges for existing digital preservation services. Digital curation and digital preservation are deeply merged and proceed in parallel to assure long-term usage of digital resources and data. How to select and deploy digital preservation platforms is another complex area where Cloud services can offer the opportunity to reduce the costs of technical infrastructures maintenance and management. Policy and decision making institutional levels need more awareness to draw up digital preservation strategies and to activate services to assure digital contents and data long-term access and reuse. Finally the paper suggests to promote "digital preservation by design" as a new base rule to be applied since the conception of every project and initiative in the cultural heritage, scientific and academic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is intended to be a humble attempt to redeem sociology, a discipline unjustly perceived as a handmaiden among the human sciences, from the secondary role to which it is inappropriately relegated in deference to an evergrowing trend of technicalization and formalization, even algorithmic, of economics and law and even of certain specialized branches of sociology itself. On the contrary, an attempt is made to demonstrate, keeping in the background the great work of Mireilles Delmas-Marti, that it is precisely the most general, historically-anthropologically compromised and culturologically oriented part of this discipline that is the one most capable of accounting for the complexity underlying the local/global dynamics in progress, deciphering the asynchronic and destabilizing forces that corrode the effectiveness of the rules redesigning scenarios and destinies of social actors, and partially motivating the reasons involved. It seems all the more significant and urgent to us to push academic reflection towards a revival of the "great sociology" traditionally understood, in a season of disturbing juridical nihilism and worrying déshistoricisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the contribution of Vincenzo Cesareo to the theme of war in Ukraine, laid out in his book "The War in the Heart of Europe". Fruit of a multidisciplinary approach, Cesareo's contribution is notable not only for its stylistic clarity, but also for the spirit and passion with which he illustrates the rights of Ukraine and the wrongs of Putin: a genuine "lesson" in times of analyses that are too often partisan and/or ideologically distorted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will attempt to reconstruct and understand the relationship between crisis, social development, legal order, and political decision-making as they have come to be intertwined in modern industrial society. Particular attention will be paid to the theme of "permanent crisis" and the problems of the "motorization of law," legal constructions, technical and scientific power in relation to processes of political legitimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay analyses the relations between the Holy See and Mexico during the pontificate of Pius XII, starting from the unpublished documentation preserved in the Historical Archive of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, and concentrating on the years from the election of Eugenio Pacelli to the papal throne to the beginning of the six-year presidential term of Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (1952-1958). Two main trends emerge from the examination of the Vatican papers: on the one hand, there is the undoubted consolidation of the fragile modus vivendi inaugurated by President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río at the end of the 1930's -- based on the non-application of the anticlerical provisions of the Constitution of Querétaro (1917) -- which under the successive presidencies of Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940-1946) and Miguel Alemán Valdés (1946-1952) would see the Apostolic Delegation in Mexico entertain a constant and profitable dialogue with the supreme authority of the State. On the other hand, starting from the passage from the Ávila Camacho presidency to the Alemán Valdés presidency, the Vatican Secretariat of State will repeatedly express its growing dissatisfaction with a legislative framework that is effectively unchanged compared to the years of open religious persecution, together with its concern for the acquiescence of relevant sectors of Mexican Catholicism towards a distancing of the Church from the political and legislative dimension that was now taken for granted. A key role in these processes was played by the Archbishop of Mexico Luis María Martínez y Rodríguez (from 1937 to 1948 in charge of affairs of the Apostolic Delegation) and by Mgr. Guglielmo Piani (appointed Apostolic Visitor in 1948 and Apostolic Delegate to Mexico in 1951), whose work received contrasting evaluations in the Vatican. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is mainly concerned with the conception of free will in Freudian theory and psychoanalytic ego psychology. There are a number of Freuds, not all consistent with each other, on the issue of free will: the Freud who views free will as an illusion, the Freud who identifies as a goal of psychoanalytic treatment the enhancement of the ego’s freedom to choose, and the Freud who locates control of motility (action) in the conscious ego. As for an ego psychology perspective, free will lies in the ego’s relative autonomy from drives, as well as in the freedom to not will and to relinquish control. In contrast to Freudian theory and ego psychology, the question of free will is not salient in post-Freudian theories, where the greater emphasis is on issues having to do with meeting needs rather than on gratification of wishes. Finally, free will is not only a matter of freedom from inner compulsion, but also of freedom from external coercion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the recent and extensive study, the result of doctoral research carried out under the direction of Ch. Théobald, in which L. Castiglioni tries to articulate the equality between men and women, rooted in baptism, and sexual difference, dialoguing with feminist culture and theology, in light of the current historical-ecclesiastical and cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space is not a simple frame within which individuals move. It is a component of reality, it acts on mutual relationships and conditions the perception of oneself and others. This paper questions the relationship between the Jewish world and its waters. The water basins of the region tell us the Jews and allow us to understand essential aspects of their identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of algorithms in the daily lives of a significant portion of humanity, coupled with the ongoing rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), inevitably prompts questions regarding educational processes, teaching paradigms, and theological education. The paper starts by examining current technologies for education, with a specific emphasis on the project framework and regulations presently in effect in Italy. It then extrapolates, drawing upon analogy and the transference of learning models, to theological education and the epistemological and ethical challenges presented by the capabilities of AI applications. The research’s scope is defined by the distinctiveness of the regulatory framework and scientific experiments conducted within the Italian context. The contribution is supplemented by a chapter entirely authored by an algorithm, and in conclusion, offers a perspective on the ontology of forms of intelligence. This perspective recognizes «sensitive thought» as the anthropological characteristic that distinguishes humans from machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper suggests two ways in which medieval thought can provide us with some interesting elements for discussing the problems of the current technological and digital revolution. The first is the fact that medieval Christian thought from the XIIth century did not despise technological innovations of the time as philosophically invaluable: from Hugues of Saint Victor onwards, we find some interesting philosophical reflections on the nature, scope and significance of technological development for mankind. The second is rooted in the general attitude of metaphysical optimism that was typical of the Latin Middle Ages and which was reflected above all in the idea of the supreme dignity of man and his central place in creation. Starting from the patristic tradition, from Johannes Scottus Eriugena to Robert Grosseteste and beyond, medieval thought established that the human microcosmus is the center of all creation and that all natural things are oriented towards it as their ultimate goal. Two conclusions can be drawn from these historical facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]