This book containing a series of Donald Meltzer’s clinical supervisions with the Racker Group of Venice focuses on adolescence and adolescent states of mind. Meltzer wrote:

‘The discussions are all descriptive and phenomenological and do not aspire to theory or a thorough list of current literature. The audience is urged to participate with questions and ideas. The result seems always to be interesting, often fun, and the atmosphere devoid of competition. The person who presents a case, often after a nervous start, is quite satisfied and, I believe I can say, finishes without ever feeling humiliated.

‘The Racker Group is one of thirty similar work groups which came into being spontaneously in twenty different countries and which have attained complete autonomy. I like to consider these as, taken together, a flexible counter-institution whose atelier style is faithful to its founding inspiration, Socrates and the School of Athens.’ (D. Meltzer, introduction to the Italian edition)