Questo contributo si propone di fornire una breve rassegna delle principali linee di ricerca seguite negli ultimi anni dal gruppo coordinato da Vittorio Lingiardi. Tra queste, ci soffermeremo in particolare su: a) valutazione e diagnosi della personalità con SWAP-200 e PDM (Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual); b) sviluppo e validazione di strumenti clinician-report per operazionalizare l'uso del PDM; c) valutazione dei meccanismi di difesa e degli stili difensivi mediante DMRS e sua versione Q sort; d) studio del processo e della relazione terapeutica (alleanza terapeutica, rotture e riparazioni dell'alleanza controtransfert); in particolare, in quest'area di ricerca, ci siamo impegnati nello sviluppo e validazione di nuovi strumenti per la valutazione dei processi di rottura e riparazione dell'alleanza (Collaborative Interaction Scale) e della qualità dell'attaccamento tra paziente e terapeuta (Patient-Therapist Attachment Q Sort); d) sviluppo della ricerca clinica e applicativa sui temi dell'identità di genere, dell'orientamento sessuale e dell'omofobia sociale e interiorizzata.

Nowadays it is sufficiently accepted that the therapeutic action of psychotherapy is expected to lie at the interface between two dimensions: identification and interpretation of the patient's dysfunctional relationship patterns arising in the relationship with the clinician. This can only happen, however, if there is a temporal space where the transference-countertransference reactions to be explored and understood can emerge (Jones, 2000). The limited number of sessions characterizing short-term psychotherapy does not seem to allow the unfolding of these dynamics, thus suggesting that the therapeutic action of this approach lies outside the patient-therapist relationship. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility that, even within the few sessions that characterize short-term psychotherapy, the dynamics of transferencecountertransference typical of the patient's dysfunctional relationship patterns do in fact emerge. For this purpose, a study has been made of the patterns of patient-therapist interaction, measured by the Psychotherapy Process Q-set. The patterns identified are related to the change found in the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme, allowing reflection on the role played by alternating interaction patterns in the variation of the patient's intrapsychic conflicts in this psychotherapy model.

Since the beginning of the last century, when Freud introduced the couch in the psychoanalytic room, a number of "objects" have been removed or renovated, yet the couch has almost always remained in place, at least officially. This article has two distinct aims. The first is to offer a reconstruction of the psychoanalytic history of this element of the setting. The second is to rethink the couch, saving it from being reduced to a mere icon. Recent contributions coming from affective neurosciences, infant research, and psychotherapy research seem to question the utility of this element and the nature of the very mechanisms of its therapeutic action. The authors wonder whether the use of the couch is primarily protective for the therapist rather than necessarily helpful for all patients. Taking into account these observations implies bringing the couch out from a silent dimension and reflecting on its role in the conception of therapeutic action and mental functioning.

No abstract

Despite the long tradition in psychotherapy research literature concerning the role of therapeutic alliance (TA), both in terms of process and outcome in clinical inter-vention, little is known about its specific characteristics in short term dynamic psy-chotherapy (STDP). Accordingly, the main aim of the present work is to focus on the formal features of TA in a good outcome STDP. We applied the Collaborative Interaction Scale (Colli & Lingiardi, 2009) to verbatim transcripts in order to track macro and micro evolution of TA while considering the interplay of both therapist and patient contributions. Data were analyzed in terms of TA general trend, TA climate onset and high impact session TA characteristics. Results sustain the STDP theory of technique (Davanloo, 1990) concerning the general process, the onset fea-tures and patient therapist interplay from a TA perspective.