Abstract:
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Italy was present in psychoanalysis long before psychoanalysis was present in Italy. Thanks to Freud's works and letters and his biographers, the important role of an imaginary Italy in his self-analysis is now quite well known. Freud's fifteen trips to the real Italy significantly fostered his revolutionary inner undertaking of self-analysis, and hence, indirectly, the works that sprang from that analysis. For some twenty years, however, this "exchange" was a one-sided one. Freud could take much from Italy but had little to give, because there were no Italians with whom he could talk of his work, his studies, his ideas. The inspiring role of Italy was passed on from Freud to some of his disciples, so that many aspects of Italian culture elicited a psychoanalytical investigation of which Italy was but the object. It was not until after the First World War that Psychoanalysis arose in Italy. The penetration of Freud's work began in a minor key with Levi Bianchini's translations. It is not until the emergence of Edoardo Weiss in the twenties that one can speak of real psychoanalytical practice. The Italian Psychoanalytical Society (S.P.I.), founded by a small nucleus of pioneers, did not really begin to grow and flourish until after the Second World War. The development and orientation of Italian psychoanalysis since then have been little known, in our view, especially outside Italy. The idea underlying this exhibition springs from these premises. The intention is to help the transition from a state of affairs characterized by two separate one-way processes to a truly reciprocal exchange more satisfactory for both partners. Our hope is that Italy in the psychoanalytical movement and the psychoanaylitical movement in Italy may become one and the same.
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