Meet IARPP President Elect
Susanna Federici-Nebbiosi

Interview by Sharon Ziv-Beiman

eNews- Please tell us about yourself.

SFN- What can I say in just a few words? I am an Italian woman who is faced with the paradox of realizing that I live in an extraordinary country known for its beauty and ancient cultural history, yet at the same time,humbly acknowledging that in today’s world, Italy often plays a marginal role. Because of this, I have always thought it is essential to keep abreast of what is happening elsewhere. I have lived in three important Italian cities (Florence, Milan, Rome). So, ever since I was a little girl I learned to be open-minded. I have always been curious about the world and luckily my curiosity is much stronger than my shyness. I have studied psychology as well as art criticism.  I have a special interest in dialogue and the exchange among different disciplines because I am persuaded that they share common underpinnings. The encounter with psychoanalysis was significant in my personal life and in my search for meaning; and that is why I am devoted to this profession. Finally, I have had the great good fortune of meeting my husband Gianni Nebbiosi, with whom I share a passion for psychoanalysis.

eNews- How did you become familiar with the Relational Approach and IARPP?

SFN- I first became interested in relational psychoanalysis when I read Stephen Mitchell’s work. At the same time, as I was reading his books, I was also very curious about the results reached in Infant Research and studies on Attachment as they sustained the paradigm shift brought about by Mitchell. In those years, I explored Self Psychology - a novelty in Italy - which at the time was turning into a rich and complex cluster of various approaches, some of which can be included in the broader definition of relational approaches. What resonated with my understanding of analytic therapy  especially was a certain clinical “sensitivity” and the formulation of theoretical models that were close to the lived experience of the clinical exchange.  Having organized in Italy many meetings with relational authors, I have followed and participated in the birth of IARPP from the very beginning.

eNews- What are your vision and goals as the next president of IARPP?

SFN- In just ten years IARPP has achieved significant results, so I wish to carry forward its vision with the same energy as the presidents who served before me. Here are what I consider to be some key objectives: consolidating and growing our membership; devoting genuine attention to the international dimension of our organization at all levels; developing a wide arena in which dialogue among different perspectives is facilitated, and respect for diversity in terms of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, age, and culture is promoted.

What I consider to be a very important aspect today - for which IARPP will have to take responsibility - involves precisely the “success” of the relational perspective. On the one hand, the spreading and ever wider acceptance of the relational outlook proves just how much it is in keeping with the spirit of our age. On the other hand, it is important to continue to creatively explore the clinical experience without crystallizing new “dogmas” and at the same time without overshadowing - in honor of the openness to dialogue with tradition - the paradigm shift introduced by Mitchell. This is especially important as we go about spreading the relational perspective in contexts where psychoanalysis is still equated with traditional Freudian/Kleinian thought.
 
eNews- Would you share with us the current position of psychoanalysis in general and relational psychoanalysis in particular in Italy ?

SFN- Knowledge of relational authors has spread in Italy thanks to these writers becoming well-known in the academic world, more so than in that of “orthodox” psychoanalysis. I believe that a valuable feature of contemporary psychoanalysis in general is the existence of independent institutes. This makes room for an innovative dialectic among rigor and research in psychoanalysis with a scope and openness unprecedented in Italy as well as in Europe. So, since the end of the nineties, what was needed in order to spread relational psychoanalysis in Italy became clearer. It was not just a matter of making the ideas accessible but also of building up a community in which the same freedom of thought could be experienced, while respecting many aspects of psychoanalytic tradition. In 2011 the book entitled “La svolta relazionale: Itinerari italiani” (which can be loosely translated as “The Relational Turning Point: Italian Experiences”) came out, which offers an interesting picture of contemporary developments in Italy.
 
eNews- What are  5 words that you associate with IARPP?

SFN- Community, Engagement, Recognition, Dialogue, Curiosity

eNews- Is there any special message you would like to send to IARPP members?

SFN- I believe that de-humanization and the spread of a “financial fundamentalism” of sorts lie at the root of the crisis of the Western world. Within this context, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists must be committed to help find new professional and human meanings. With “hope and dread” I would like to interpret the spirit of the community created by Mitchell and his early collaborators and continue WITH YOU ALL to promote an approach to the psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic adventure that is close to the experience of individuals, and help them learn to trust human relations and hold on to that trust.

 

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