Objective: To identify core vulnerability features capable of discriminating subjects who are more prone to develop eating disorders. Sampling and Methods: A nonclinical group composed of 253 university students was studied by means of the Identity and Eating Disorders questionnaire (IDEA), exploring abnormal attitudes toward one's own body and difficulties in the definition of one's own identity, the Body Uneasiness Test (BUT) and different self-reported questionnaires evaluating the specific and general psychopathology of eating disorders. The results were compared with those of a clinical eating disorder group. Results: In the student sample, a group composed of 35 subjects with abnormal eating patterns and a group (218 subjects) without such features were identified. The IDEA total and subscale scores were found to be significantly higher in subjects with abnormal eating patterns than in subjects without them (all p < 0.001). Positive correlations between the IDEA total and subscale scores and the BUT global score were observed in both groups (all p < 0.01). The comparison of the scores on the IDEA between the clinical group (patients with full-blown eating disorders) and the subjects with abnormal over-threshold eating patterns yields a significant difference in the ‘feeling extraneous from one's own body' subscale of the IDEA. Conclusions: The IDEA resulted in being a valid instrument to identify a vulnerability to eating disorders in subjects with abnormal eating patterns in the general population and to recognize the presence of a significant discomfort related to the body. Feeling extraneous from one's own body is the experience that discriminates most between clinical and nonclinical subjects.

Abstract.Objectives. This paper intends to offer a theoretical insight into the myths of motherhood and how these myths can bear on the pathogenesis of postpartum depression. Methods. From a man's view motherhood is conceptualized as a necessary stage in the progress towards the attainment of femininity. This view is impersonal and external to the experience of motherhood. From a female perspective, motherhood presents itself as a conflicting situation. We will then focus on the necessity to construct a discourse on motherhood by using a code which belongs to women rather than men. The analysis of a blog and a comedy show will provide evidence concerning the evolution of the female discourse on motherhood thus contributing to the debunking of the myths of motherhood. The final section discusses ways in which myths of motherhood can bear on the pathogenesis of postpartum. Conclusions. Among "melancholic type" women, who tend to abide by social norms, play established social roles and hide their inner conflicts, myths of motherhood contribute to suppress the contradiction which is intrinsic to motherhood itself making this contradiction uncontrollable and potentially devastating.Key words: postpartum depression, motherhood, feminine identity, typus melancholicus, phenomenology. Riassunto (I miti della maternità. Il ruolo della cultura nello sviluppo della depressione postpartum).Obiettivi. Questo articolo intende presentare delle riflessioni teoriche in merito ai miti della maternità e al loro peso nella patogenesi dei disturbi depressivi legati al postpartum. Metodi. Dal punto di vista degli uomini la maternità sembra essere vista come funzione sociale e come passaggio obbligatorio per il pieno sviluppo della femminilità. A fianco a questa visione esterna e impersonale della maternità si propone la prospettiva femminile che ne evidenzia le criticità, complessità e conflittualità. Inoltre si analizza la necessità di costruire un discorso sulla maternità a partire da codici femminili. L'analisi di un blog e di uno spettacolo evidenziano che il discorso femminile sulla maternità tende a sfatare i miti sulla maternità stessa. Infine viene discusso il modo in cui questi miti possono avere un peso sulla patogenesi della depressione postpartum. Conclusioni. Nelle donne con struttura di personalità "typus melancholicus" la necessità di incarnare i miti della maternità contribuisce alla creazione di contraddizioni ingestibili tra le rigide aspettative sociali e i normali conflitti insiti nella condizione materna.Parole chiave: depressione postpartum, maternità, identità femminile, typus melancholicus, fenomenologia.

According to European early career psychiatrists, there is the need to rethink training in psychopathology, which should be at the heart of training in psychiatry and the key element of psychiatric practice. Education in psychopathology is affected by several unmet needs, such as lack of appropriate training in the use of psychometric instruments, lack of supervision, and lack of practical skills.

We hope to provide those clinicians who are engaged in the care of pregnant women and their children with a valuable and user-friendly instrument for understanding and making a timely diagnoses of at-risk psychopathological phenomena.

The author's intention is to underline how the concept of enactment makes its appearance, first on a psychodynamic level and then on an official level, with Jacobs' 1986 article. The formalisation of the term is accompanied by the necessary distinction between enactment and mono-personal concepts such as acting out and projective identification. The enactment, stressing the interactive nature of the analytical dialogue, has forced psychoanalysts to rework the traditional theory of reference and to search for key points of representational sharing made possible by the APA panel in 1992. The theme of self-disclosure will be addressed in the light of the theoretical-clinical transformations introduced by the recognition of the relational nature of analytical therapy. Finally, the theme of enactment, will be treated in the light of the author's personal representation, taking into account the necessary distinction between enactment and interaction, the complexity and dialectical logic in which this dynamic is inscribed.