Language, Symbolization, and Psychosis

Giovanna Ambrosio is a full Member and the Secretary of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association, member of the International Psychoanalytical Association, and Chief Editor of the journal 'Psicoanalisi'. She is the current overall Chair of the IPA Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis (COWAP), and former European co-chair of COWAP (2001-2005). Her main scientific interests include the field of the intrapsychic interaction relationship between 'truth and false', the meanings of 'lies', and issues related to the well known problem of the "confusion of tongues". She is author of several essays and editor of two books - 'On Incest: Psychoanalytic Perspectives' and 'Language, Symbolization, and Psychosis', both published by Karnac. Simona Argentieri is a full Member, Training and Supervising Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical association. She has dedicated much thought to the relationship between psychoanalysis, culture and art, particularly the cinema. She is the author of many essays and books on the above subjects. Jorge Canestri, M.D, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst. Training and supervising analyst for the Italian Psychoanalytical Association and for the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association. Mary S. Sigourney Award recipient 2004. Professor of Psychology of Health at the Roma 3 University. Editor of the Educational Section of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. President of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association. Has published numerous psychoanalytical papers in books and reviews including 'Language, Symbolisation and Psychosis'.

'Language, Symbolization and Psychosis is a remarkable achievement, in which the reader will find fourteen stimulating papers and a comprehensive introduction dealing with the main analytic themes to which Jacqueline Amati Mehler contributed with her intelligence, clinical skills, wide analytic and humanistic culture and last, but not least, her tireless dedication to and passion for psychoanalysis, for its teaching and for its institutional life.' - Claudio Lars Eizirik (President of the International Psychoanalytical Association)'Language, Symbolization and Psychosis, denotes the scope of Dr Amati Mehler's scholarly contributions to psychoanalysis as well as the primary focus of the fourteen chapters contributed by outstanding psychoanalytic scholars. There could be no more fitting tribute to Dr Amati Mehler. Approached from a variety of perspectives, the unifying theme is the complex and still enigmatic process of symbolization. It is not only a core concept in various developmental theories and an important cornerstone in understanding severe pathologies, but is also at the heart of what makes us human. The text expands horizons and like most significant scholarly works, raises as many questions as it answers. Readers of this volume will be stimulated, challenged, and richly rewarded.'- Lawrence B. Inderbitzin, M.D., D.L.F.A.P.A., Professor Emeritus, Emory University School of Medicine, Training and Supervising Analyst, Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute'Following Amati Mehler's incisive and crystalline ouevre, a remarkable international group of leading psychoanalytic thinkers here add fresh contributions to our understandings of the conversation that is human life. The nature of self and other, being and language, foreign and familiar, time and timelessness, knowing and not knowing - the essence of being human is addressed in this exceptional work with a consistently disciplined open-mindedness, one fresh and free of parochial posturing. Offered a collection rich with clinical illustrations that ring true to life, we are left feeling the stimulation of participating in an exciting conference, one that sparkles with original ideas, that ends with new questions opened. This important accomplishment is exactly what one would expect from work done in Amati Mehler's footsteps.' - Warren S. Poland, M.D

• ContentsForeword by Giovanna Ambrosio, Simona ArgentieriIntroduzione by Jorge CanestriDeciphering the secrets of oblivion by Fidias CesioSelf formation, symbolic capacity and spontaneity by Gemma Corradi FiumaraA language for remembering the future by Yolanda GampelSymbolization and Psychosis. The mediating function of images in individual psychoanalytic psychodrama by Alain Gibeault"White Psychoses": silence and delusions by Adolfo PazzagliWhen actions speak louder than words by Fred PineReflections on listening to and speaking with the patient during analysis by Ana-Maria Rizzuto The Mystery of the Unsaid Name. Commonalities between God and Rumpelstiltskin by Theodore Shapiro, M.D. Texts and Pre-texts in Psychoanalytic Clinical Practice: Languages and Idioms by Adriana SorrentiniSymbolism in love and sex by Ethel Spector Person, M.D.Does the Pierce's semiotic model based on index, icon, symbol have anything to do with psychoanalysis? By Riccardo SteinerThe Foreign Language by Louise de UrtubeyAfterword by Anne Marie Sandler