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Psychiatric journals have been in existence for almost as long as general medical publications have been available. The world of publishing has been transformed in the past 15 years as a result of open access - the availability of full text papers online free to view by the reader. A number of open access journals are now available online and these challenge the traditional subscription only approach to publishing. Open access is supported by large funding bodies in Europe and the US. Yet there are concerns that the new approach will lower standards as the payment for publication model might be perceived as creating a conflict of interest between the author and the reviewer or publisher. There is confusion about indexing and in particular the relationship to the impact factor. This metric is the most commonly used to measure journal impact but other are available to evaluate the impact of an individual author or group of authors or the impact of a single paper. Newer metrics take account of mention on social and traditional media. In recent years the submission process has been streamlined with the increasing use of automated systems. Despite these major changes in the approach of journals, the role of the editor and the editorial board remains unchanged. It is they who decide on the philosophy and direction of the journal. Peer reviewing is the hallmark of a quality journal and although this too has its critics, it cannot be dispensed with. It too has changed over time and some journals publish the peer reviews along with the accepted paper. The training of peer reviewers is an important step in ensuring high standards. Psychiatric journals should not lose sight of their purpose - to educate their readers, to stimulate debate and to advocate for our patients.

If we can learn to recognize ourselves and position ourselves in stories, we can identify beliefs, assumptions, and social norms that shape the way we see ourselves and the world around us. This has the potential for reflection and, in some cases, transformative learning. In this paper, I illustrate the process of positioning ourselves in stories using four Canadian short stories. I include the voices of participants who were engaged in a 12 week course on learning through fiction.

Quando le narrazioni diventano fisse, non aperte al cambiamento o alla modifica, esse di-ventano espressioni di stupidità, come descritto da Kohon, sia in patologia, psicoanalisi, di-scorso politico, o l’attuale impennata delle politiche dell’identità: un impoverimento simbolico che equivale a un collasso di terzietà. Il desiderio di certezze basato sull’illusione di completez-za, presente in tutti noi, è legato all’io ideale, un’arcaica fusione narcisistica con una madre on-nipotente. Nel nostro lavoro, la nostra identificazione con Freud come un ideale dell’Io previe-ne ogni atto incestuoso del legame transferale introducendo un terzo simbolico, la differenza, e il mondo della cultura.

Emigration, multiculturalism and psychoanalysis: the point of view of a psychoanalyst - Emigration and its consequences, present-day multi-cultural societies, confront us with many questions, as individuals, and in our psycho-analytic work with patients. From Psycho- analysis, we can observe how our encounter with different cultures refers us to the initial encounter with differences, at the base of psychic life, and to the first identifications and the unconscious personal myths that give narrative shape to the latter. In this respect, within the analytic situation, cultural differences affect the transference and the countertransference, particularly when patient and/or analyst belong to different cultures.

Parole chiave: emigrazione, multiculturalismo, colpa, identità, scissione, altro

Key words: Emigration, multiculturalism, guilt, identity, splitting, other

Al fine di valutare il rischio per il minore è fondamentale comprendere le strategie d’attaccamento dei genitori. L’articolo approfondisce i motivi per i quali la comprensione dell’attaccamento dei genitori che mettono a rischio i propri figli può chiarire i processi psicologici sottesi ai comportamenti pregiudizievoli e migliorare la valutazione del rischio per il minore e l’individuazione degli interventi necessari. Viene proposta la valutazione dell’attaccamento dei genitori tramite l’Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) classificata con il metodo del Modello Dinamico Maturativo dell’Attaccamento e Adattamento (DMM). Le DMM-AAI, classificate da professionisti formati e certificati e integrate con i dati provenienti da altre fonti in modo da elaborare delle formulazioni familiari individualizzate, soddisfano i requisiti di attendibilità e guidano l’individuazione degli interventi più efficaci. Viene presentata una meta-analisi relativa al metodo Berkeley che mette in discussione l’uso di tale metodo nel contesto forense. Ulteriori dati descritti nell’articolo riguardano il funzionamento psicologico di un gruppo di genitori a rischio valutati attraverso le DMM-AAI.

Deliberating, Negotiating, and Arguing over the Uncertain Destiny of Hume’s Law. Review of a Recent Congress ABSTRACT: This critical note presents an assessment of some theoretical frameworks concerning, first and foremost, the threefold model of argumentation, negotiation and dialogue. The author discusses whether it is possible to bargain over beliefs, following the proposal of Raùl Calvo at the recent XIII Italian-Spanish congress for analytical philosophy of law. Moreover, Mindus takes into account the current debate on Hilary Putnam’s The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and the thesis of so-called entangled objects in law, by discussing the critical outlook offered by José Juan Moreso and Gaetano Carcaterra.

This essay looks at the background of New Labour in order to provide a conceptual framework of some core issues in Uk’s recent political life. Chiefly, civil society will be considered. By linking Giddens’ Third Way to the tradition of Ethical Socialism and to T.H. Marshall’s account of «social citizenship», this paper clears out some rarely highlighted preconditions of New Labour’s political model, on the basis of a critical outline. This construal, focusing on New Labour’s relation to both communitarism and individualistic rationalism, enables a fresh reading of some of its key policies.

The essay deals with the current tussle over the political and legal defintions of the EU. By confronting the actual strucute of the European Union with some of the major categories in western political thought (such as State, nation, etc.), the article aims to test the conceptual consistency not only of the Draft Treaty but also of some theoretical innovations recently put forth by EU-scholars. Particularly relevant is the analysis of multilevel governance as an alternative to classic federalism.

L’articolo discute di come Walmart - azienda simbolo delle trasformazioni del capitalismo contemporaneo - ha sviluppato le sue pratiche di gestione del lavoro e le sue strategie organizzative nel contesto brasiliano. Sulla base di dati provenienti da una ricerca sul campo e dall’analisi delle cause sul lavoro che hanno coinvolto l’azienda in anni recenti, l’articolo mostra come alcune di queste pratiche siano state respinte e di come altre abbiano resistito nonostante le tutele previste dalla normativa esistente. Tuttavia, alcune pratiche di gestione del personale hanno consentito di trasferire con successo gli elementi chiave dell’ideologia aziendale permettendo di raggiungere una forma di consenso indiretto tra i lavoratori, in parte basato su pratiche intimidatorie e comunque sullo sfondo di un’organizzazione del lavoro imperniata sul mantenimento di un basso costo del lavoro.

Current international guidelines recommend Trauma-Focused Therapies (TFT) to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, non-response and dropout rates have shown to be substantial. TFT, delivered in a highly intensive dose may lead to a more efficacious symptom reduction and lower dropout rates. This article describes an inpatient treatment program with Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), called High-Intensive NET (HI-NET). The program consists of sixteen NET sessions during two weeks, combined with art therapy and yoga. After describing the treatment program, we present two case reports of patients who received HI-NET. We measured amongst others symptoms of PTSD and depression, sleep quality and general psychopathology at pre-treatment, post-treatment and at four months’ follow-up. The two patients showed that applying HI-NET is a promising approach to append to the existing way of conducting NET. One patient reported a slight increase in symptoms at post-treatment, but was fully recovered of PTSD at follow-up. The other patient recovered gradually, with full recovery at follow-up. The other measures also showed important improvements at the end of treatment and at follow-up. Concluding: NET in a high intensive form is applicable and feasible. Our two cases showed an important improvement in PTSD symptoms and in general psychopathology. More research is needed with larger patient groups to determine efficacy and efficiency more properly.