Back to Table of Contents
VI. B. Italian Contributors Where in British psychoanalysis, theories of the Self have been developed within the object relations tradition, in Italian psychoanalysis the concept of Self was developed by authors who have theorized its genesis from the primitive mind in the relationship with the mother (Eugenio Gaddini); from the “group matrix” (Giovanni Hautmann); from the trans- generational dimension (Diego Napolitani); or as a device to analyze the dynamics in the analyst-patient relationship (Stefano Bolognini) . Eugenio Gaddini (in: Mascadini, Gaddini, De Benedetti, 1989), through his deep knowledge and collaboration with Winnicott was one of the psychoanalysts who imported and developed theories of the Self in Italian psychoanalysis. In referring to the Self, he uses the term “organizer”, with respect to the term “structure”, to indicate its catalytic function in the development of the psychic organization. In the initial phases in the structure of the Self, its anchoring to sensory stimuli and bodily sensations that lack a sense of time and defined space prevails. These first sensations cause in the baby a first form of “self-experience”, which is experienced as coming from the self, devoid of boundaries and not differentiated from the non- self. The psyche then emerges from the sensations and gradually organizes them through a very primitive mechanism that Gaddini defines “primitive imitation”, or “imitating to be”. This primitive imitation/impersonation continues to be used also in adult life – usually in dreams and in the pathology of the sense of self – and in the age of adolescence in the face of anguish caused by the relationship with the object (Mascadini, Gaddini, De Benedetti, 19891989, p. 563). Starting from the third month the child’s psyche through perception begins to meet with something that Gaddini defines as an “obscure sense of non-self” that will lead him to a first recognition of the object as separate from himself. The author strongly underlines the psychic vulnerability of the child in this phase, more extreme than the biological one that generates a form of primitive anguish which is the anxiety of loss of self (p. 566). Later Gaddini will define 1-the anguish of non-integration, when the separated Self fails to maintain cohesion and is fragmented , 2- anguish of integration, when the Self, through biological maturation and adaptation of the environment to its emotional needs, acquires a feeling of sufficient stability, but it is constantly afraid of losing it. It is interesting to note that Winnicott talks about the anguish of integration as connected with a kind of paranoid anxiety. The separation of the Self from the non-Self object coincides with the psychological birth (Mahler et al. 1975) and occurs through an oscillation between anguish of non-integration and anguish of integration. The libidinal charges do not primarily seek the object, but are turned inside to hold the fragments of the Self together and this stage can be defined as consolidation of the constituted, unitary Self. This stage can last for a considerable time and is a precious time because the Self is able to have autonomous experiences and the anxieties of loss of the self gradually disappear. The last stage is that of the formation of the object and coincides with the renunciation of the Self of the previous defenses in order to invest in an authentic relationship of love. Gaddini argues that all these stages are also recognizable in the individual analytic process.
776
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online