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Viene descritta una tecnica basata sul "disegno speculare progressivo" per la terapia psicodinamica delle psicosi, sviluppata da Gaetano Benedetti (1920-2013) e Maurizio Peciccia. In questa tecnica paziente e terapeuta tracciano contemporaneamente su due diversi fogli un disegno spontaneo, e in un secondo momento entrambi completano e trasformano il disegno dell’altro. Arte-terapeuta e paziente - ripetendo i medesimi gesti della mano, sviluppandoli nel dialogo grafico - entrano nel mondo dell’altro attraverso porte inconsce condivise e si aprono a una comunicazione precedentemente nascosta, come in un sogno. Questa tecnica e diversa dallo squiggle game di Winnicott, il quale tracciava uno scarabocchio che poi il bambino trasformava "facendone qualcosa", e altre volte il bambino disegnava una forma che poi Winnicott sviluppava o completava.

The present study focuses on the multifaceted concept of self-disturbance in schizophrenia, adding knowledge about a not yet investigated aspect, which is the interoceptive accuracy. Starting from the assumption that interoceptive accuracy requires an intact sense of self, which otherwise was proved to be altered in schizophrenia, the aim of the present study was to explore interoceptive accuracy in a group of schizophrenia patients, compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the possible association between interoceptive accuracy and patients’ positive and negative symptomatology was assessed. To pursue these goals, a group of 23 schizophrenia patients and a group of 23 healthy controls performed a heartbeat perception task. Patients’ symptomatology was assessed by means of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results demonstrated significantly lower interoceptive accuracy in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. This difference was not accounted for participants’ age, BMI, anxiety levels and heart rate. Furthermore, patients’ illness severity, attention and pharmacological treatment did not influence their interoceptive accuracy levels. Interestingly, a strong positive relation between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptoms severity, especially Grandiosity, was found. The present results demonstrate for the first time that interoceptive accuracy is altered in schizophrenia. Furthermore, they prove a specific association between interoceptive accuracy and positive symptomatology, suggesting that the symptom Grandiosity might be protective against an altered basic sense of self in patients characterized by higher sensibility to their inner bodily sensations.

Background: Amniotic therapy (AT) is a sensory integration group-therapy for psychotic patients. Therapeutic interactions are non-verbal and similar to mother–foetus interactions in amniotic fluid. AT aims to define internal and external self-boundaries through the integration of separate self and symbiotic self.Aims: The aim of this paper is to present the first data regarding an empirical investigation on AT conducted with a group of long-term psychotic patients and their co-therapists. Patients were treated intensively through AT sessions for one year.Results: Outcome clinical data show an improvement in the interpersonal social functioning of the patients as measured by the quality of life and by the clinical judgment of a psychiatrist external to the research project.

We hypothesize that, in the structure of the psychotic self, there is a disintegration between the symbiotic and separate states of the self, of which the patient is painfully aware: to use a metaphor, the light in the schizophrenic self is split: at times it is only in wave form, energy (the patient is living in disintegrated symbiosis), at others it is only matter, corpuscular (the patient is living in disintegrated separation); unfortunately, the wave and the particle are unable to produce a unitary phenomenon: the light becomes two entities. Sometimes we see the psychotic living symbiotically, we feel him to be very close to us, he tells us: “I am the moon, the sun, the universe. I am you”. At other times the patient is in his separate self but, as he is split off from the symbiotic self, his separation is extreme, it is autistic solitude: “nothing exists apart from me: the sun, the moon, the universe, are meaningless shadows which I cannot distinguish …, you are light-years away from me … yo...

Introduction The awareness of one's body constitutes a basic experience of Self which modulates the individual engagement in social interactions. Indeed, Interoception Sensitivity (IS), an index of individual ability to represent one’s own internal body states, is implicated in the autonomic regulation in interpersonal context. Schizophrenia deficits in Self-experience and awareness, which frequently entail anomalies in self-other relationship, capture the ever-growing attention of researchers. Nevertheless, IS and autonomic regulation of schizophrenic patients in social context are completely new and not yet investigated aspects of Schizophrenia. Aim To investigate whether Schizophrenia could be associated with lower IS and with a dysfunctional autonomic regulation during social interaction. Methods 24 chronic schizophrenia patients, and a matched group of healthy controls, performed a Social and a Non-social task while respiratory sinus arrhythmia (an index of autonomic regulation) was measured. In the Social task participants viewed an experimenter performing a caress-like movement at different distances from their hand. In the Non-social task a metal stick was moved at the same distances from the participants’ hand. As measure of IS, a cardiac Mental Tacking Task was performed. Results Comparing to controls, Schizophrenia patients presented lower IS, absence of relation between IS and autonomic regulation, and an anomalous autonomic regulation in social and non-social contexts. Conclusions Deficits in Self-experience, associated with Schizophrenia, could be extended to patients’ sensitivity to internal bodily signals. Moreover, the observed altered autonomic regulation will be part of interpersonal interaction deficit frequently associated to Schizophrenia.