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A difficult dimension to accept is the self-founding one, for us humans who tend to constantly give ourselves over to the search for a first cause and end up finding it. Yet what distinguishes us and distinguishes our life is precisely knowledge understood as a permanent production of worlds through the very process of living. An epistemological orientation based on a body paradigm and that pays attention to relationship and experience can contribute to the understanding of the "hard problem" of consciousness and of the relationship between affective and cognitive neuroscience, on one hand, and psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When encountering a family struggling with the human dimensions of dying, the family therapist cannot help but ask himself fundamental questions with profound ethical implications: how and when it is best to mend the split between medical time and the psychic times of the family? How can we support the freedom of choice both of the individual and the system when these do not coincide? Every functional loss dictated by the disease requires more caregivers and equipment which must be added: how and to what extent can the family integrate them? How can the therapist manage the Use of Self when dealing with constant losses? Does it make sense to offer psychotherapy, and on what dimensions does it have to work? Through the reflections on the clinical processes conducted by the Mourning team of the Clinical Center of the Accademia di psicoterapia della famiglia in Rome, the goal of our work has become to identify and strengthen the elements that allow the therapeutic system to keep on working with the vital processes of the family. The unsettling process of dying force the therapeutic system -- which in our thinking includes enlarged family, friends and therapists -- into continuous adaptive change; only by tolerating impotence and be willing to learn from this painful experience can the destructuring loss also became an opportunity to reconstruct new ways of communicating, of being, of living. Rebuilding relationships, seeking and fortifying intact resources, working on the meanings of Time and the conscious choice of how to live it, are the core of our clinical work. The therapeutic relationship is the elective place of this process of mutual learning that allows the family to know and recognize each other even within the new boundaries imposed by the disease and lead the therapists towards new edges of themselves and of what can be considered therapeutic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From Freud to Winnicott, Gaddini, Aulagnier and Green, psychoanalysis has questioned the origins, emphasising the impact of sensory experience and the somato-psychic unity that characterises the human subject. The importance of the body and sensoriality at the origins of the subject and relationality can be traced back to prenatal life. When life events produce lacerations, cancellations and voids in this original sense-motor fabric, the sharing of those very intense and idiosyncratic sensorial experiences that qualify every parent-baby relationship also fails, producing deep and unrepresentable suffering that extends to the world of relationships. The first sessions with an adoptive family show that, when there is an early or prenatal traumatic situation, characterised by a total discontinuity of the sensorial and relational experience, its traces are imprinted in the bodily, sensorial and musical elements of the experience and relationship. In order to get in touch with the most regressive, formless and archaic aspects of the functioning of the group and its members, we must rely on our bodies and senses. More specifically, a musical listening can enable us to gather the rhythms and modulations of the interactions between family members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic experience deeply changed the border between familiar and unfamiliar starting from the same perception/representation of one's own body, that becomes a field full of anxiety where all contacts are potentially cause of danger and contagion, conditions that change in depth the way of living relations. We analyze, through psychoanalytical experiences, as specific of pandemic in digitalization era the intertwining between body, network, and technology, another level of the transformations of the border between familiar and unfamiliar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author introduces a journey through the "Old and new frontiers of family therapy", starting from a review of the special issues of the journal Terapia Familiare published since its foundation in 1977 to the year 2005. A common thread is identified among the articles contained in those issues that follows some unifying themes: the legacy of the family movement and its representation; the fundamental feelings about the family relationship that emerge in that inheritance; the different conceptions of the relationship and their ethics; the influence of the legacy of the movement on the training path of those who learn to do psychotherapy in relational and systemic schools. The title alludes to the "pith of the plant", its essential heart, which once planted generates the new. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Infidelity is a challenging topic for both couples involved and clinicians who take care of them. Even though it is a spreading phenomenon, research thereon is still limited. The complexity of the construct makes it difficult to define. This study aims to systematize the researches available in the literature on infidelity definition, consequences, and clinical implications. It was carried out a scientific literature review of articles published from 1987 until April 2021. The analysed studies showed that researchers, clinicians, and laic people conceptualize infidelity in different ways and the consequences of infidelity can be extremely varied and they are distinct for the betrayed partner, the philandering, and the lover. It was demonstrated that couples who remain together after an affair are those who disclose that and engage themselves in therapy. There are no evidence-based interventions specific for infidelity, but it was showed that trust and forgiveness are central elements of psychological interventions. Expanding knowledge and developing specific instruments for clinicians is necessary to help them to navigate this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Sciences & Society is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The therapeutic process comes to life only when it filters through the person of the therapist. This specific process takes a shape by way of the convictions, the states of mind, the history and the system of values of the therapist. What are the aspects inherent to the person of the therapist who are evaluated as most important in the course of psychotherapy? Can our patients help us better understand these aspects? To answer these questions, we conducted a research with the aim of investigate which aspects of the therapist's person emerge in a more incisive way in a group of patients who have completed an individual, couple or family therapy training. To this aim, a questionnaire of 36 multi-choice items was constructed, which was self-submitted to a group of patients who had completed a psychotherapeutic training. The adjectives presented concerned aspects of the therapist's person divided into 6 axes: temperament, communication, respect, competence, warmth, authenticity. Half of the items were adjectives with positive connotations (selfassured, welcoming), and the remaining half with negative connotations (rigid, authoritarian). Patients who found therapy useful outlined very specific aspects of the therapist's person. These aspects seem to be more concerned with the axis of temperament, the one that has more to do with the person of the therapist. These traits could be the basis for the emotional involvement of the patient and therefore of the therapeutic relationship itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a society dominated by technological progress, sexuality, as a need of the human being, requires particular attention and to deserve a careful look is precisely the interaction between sexuality and robotics. The latter, was born as a field of research and interdisciplinary practice which, thanks to or because of its developments on human-machine interactions, offers possibilities and raises questions in the field of sexual health. The triumph of sex dolls, as satisfactory tools for sexual purposes, has stimulated the reflection of numerous scientists to produce a sexual tool that came ever closer to the imaginary of the human being: the sex robot. The sex robot, in fact, recalls the characteristics of the human being in a more sophisticated way: it is able to entertain conversations, to experience emotions and has a pre-programmed personality. The sex robot even has the ability to simulate sexual movements and positions and to imitate an orgasm. This sexual product, therefore, was developed specifically for sexual purposes. The "march" of sex robots in real life is becoming increasingly accentuated to the point that, according to some scientists, humans, in a few decades, will find themselves having more sexual relations with sex robots than with their fellow humans in the flesh. Faced with this unceasing technological evolution, the scientific community is questioning the relationship between sex robots and human beings, focusing on the ethical aspects related to the latter. It follows that the appearance of these sexual products in the cybernetic industry has divided the scientific community, and not, into two ethical orientations. The first, considers sex robots to be potential, rather than deficient, tools for solving problems, such as pedophilia and prostitution; the second, on the other hand, considers the sex robots products capable of generating negatively significant social changes, such as an increase in deviant sexual behavior, the robotization of consent and the alienation of the human being. The position of those who consider sex robots as simple products for the exclusive use of a few people has also emerged in the scientific community. In addition, health professionals and the whole community are wondering about the use of sex robots in the therapeutic field. In fact, although the efficacy of other sexual products, such as sex toys, has been widely proven in the treatment of orgasm problems, on the effectiveness of sex robots as a therapeutic tool, however, there is little documentation. The undoubted efficacy of sex robots in sexual therapy seems to have fueled a general skepticism by psychotherapists and physicians, who are relatively open to the use of sex robots in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions and whose attitudes are influenced by ethical considerations regarding their use. The skepticism towards these sexual products does not depend exclusively on a technophobic vision or on an excessive moralism but arises from the need to exploit the potential of this sexual product by protecting public health and reducing related risks. The ethical evaluation by physicians and psychotherapists depends on several factors, such as gender, age, reasons behind the use of these sexual products, past experiences and the different training of health professionals. In other words, female psychotherapists and physicians present more ethical concerns than their male colleagues. Furthermore, younger therapists more easily accept the application of technology in the therapeutic field than their older colleagues. Sex robots, even, are rated negatively when used as a consumer product rather than as a therapeutic tool. The critical attitude of psychotherapists and doctors also depends on the negative association of sex robots with emotional dependence and pornography. Different sexual health professionals, namely psychotherapists and physicians, evaluate the use of sexual robots in clinical practice differently: the former, in fact, tend to be more critical than the latter. However, in clinical and therapeutic settings, the use of sex robots seems to increase in several fields of intervention, such as in the treatment of erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and anxiety related to the first sexual relationship or, even, with socially isolated people, sex offenders and, above all, with people suffering from dementia, autism and physical disability. According to Döring and Poeschl (2018), the technological advancement of sexual products provides opportunities for the creation of health promotion projects and, therefore, the sex industry and engineers should jointly engage with other expert figures, such as health professionals, in perfecting robots that have a positive impact on people's sexual well-being. The aim of this work is to highlight the relationship between technology and sexuality, focusing attention on the risks and benefits deriving from the use of sex robots and emphasizing the attitudes of health professionals towards the use of sex robots in the therapeutic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Sciences & Society is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The recurrent condition of non-existence as defence to survive traumatic abuse creates the distortion in the meaning of the dependence from the object. To save a part of the Self from the risk of being annihilated the victim dissociates significant parts of the affective experience, taking refuge in a condition of non-psychic life comparable to agony, learning to cohabit with death psychic areas. The experience suffered de-signified and non-representable brings with it an insufficient development of the Self affective nucleus and a distorted sense of morality. In the paper will be demonstrated the propulsive value of the dissociated material. According to Bromberg's model it is the therapist eye that can catch the hidden value. The setting issue is the central question in the treatment of abused patients and the author consider the heterogeneous group as a suitable setting for the treatment of these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death is characterized by the loss of life and the possibility of being described only by those who survive. The analyst is summoned in his work to address the issue of death through patient associations. Mourning and death concern psychic processes but also concrete experiences of life. The paper deals with the relationship between the analyst's experience of his own death and the role this can play in psychoanalytic treatment. According to the author, the quality and stability of the relationship with his internal objects is key to trying to face and help others face the experience of death even in the current reality strongly influenced by technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the person, in pedagogy, a relationships or has relationships? The article answers this question choosing for the first definition. The author argues this choice first of all by referring to the same etymology of the term "pedagogy" which refers structurally to the relationship existing between two subjects people who evolve in the world and in history. Secondly, referring to the observation that each personal "self' is always as such in relation, on one side, with other personal "subjects" and, on the other hand, with the the things of the world and the history. Finally, highlighting how the person is not referenceable if, together with the inter-subjective and inter-objective relationships that distinguish it, does not live, more or less actually or potentially, even those intrasubjective relationships, ie those that arise from the introspective and self-reflective dialogue that exists between personal conscience and self-awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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