LIBRI DI SERGIO SALVATORE

In the Italian context, the psychology profession is regulated by a particular legal framework, which establishes that (a) a set of expert functions (e.g., psychological diagnosis, rehabilitation) are exclusively reserved to the psychology profession (b) psychotherapy is defined a second-order function reserved to psychologists (and practitioners) having a 4-year specialization after the master degree in psychology. This specific institutional framework raises the necessity of a threefold differentiation. First, the need to set clear scientific boundaries between professional psychology and other non-psychological forms of professional/expert practice (e.g., counselor, mental coach). Second, the need to clarify the specificity of the psychology practices operating in the clinical field with respect to those operating in other fields of intervention (e.g., school, community). Third, the need to model the articulation between the clinical psychologist and the psychotherapist. The paper provides a model to operate such a differentiation. Though motivated by and focused on the peculiarity of the Italian context, the current paper offers considerations that may transcend that context and be of general interest

The compartmentalization of psychological science and of the profession prevents the progress of the discipline. Compartmentalization is a collateral effect of the impressive scientific, methodological, and technical development of psychology, which has led to the emergence of specialized segments of knowledge and practice that unavoidably tend to progress separately from each other and weaken their reciprocal linkage. The work highlights the limits of compartmentalization and discusses motives that call for the unity of psychology. Three approaches to unification are outlined: I) the identification of the ultimate causal explanation; II) the progressive extension of the explicative capacity of specific theories; III) the building of a metatheoretical framework. Finally, the paper proposes the intervention as the criterion to compare the capacity of the three approaches to unity. According to this criterion, approaches can be validated by reason of their ability to enable professional psychology to address the current challenges that people and society have to face.

Il contributo discute criticamente la capacità dell’interpretazione in positivo del concetto di salute, di porsi a fondamento scientifico della psicologia della salute. La critica si poggia su tre argomenti: il carattere ideale e asintotico della definizione in positivo, la sua dipendenza dalle contingenze storico-culturali, la mancanza di riferimento ad una classe specifica di fenomeni. Due alternative sono richiamate: il recupero della concezione in negativo - la salute come as-senza di malattia - e la concezione metodologica: la salute come dinamica istituzionale che sostanzia l’agire sanitario.

Un testo rivolto a psicologi e psicoterapeuti che, a prescindere dal modello teorico di riferimento, sentono il bisogno di nuovi strumenti per facilitare i propri pazienti a sbloccare situazioni critiche lavorando anche tra una seduta e l’altra. Il libro raccoglie trentotto esercizi e prescrizioni, specificando per ognuno di essi la tipologia di pazienti per cui può essere utile, le istruzioni con cui presentare l’esercizio e gli obiettivi che persegue. Ne risulta uno strumento di supporto di facile utilizzo e consultazione.

Western societies are crossed by a plurality of critical phenomena. The perception is that of being grappled with an uncontrollable anthropological drift, which make us powerless, leading towards a point of no return. A constitutive character of such a drift is the enslaving of the public spheres to the affects (i.e. affectivization). Any public affair and discussion is less and less addressed in terms of functional criteria (i.e. in terms of optimization of utility in reason of objective data) and more and more as the trigger as well as the target of affective acting-out. Such a dynamics challenges all individuals and institutions that think that civilization and progress are a matter of the human efforts to enslave the affective exercise of the present moment to the capacity of the reason to draw futurables. Education - and higher education within it - is at the front line of this challenge, because it is up to it the effort of promoting the symbolic resources that enables people to succeed in the twofold task of valorizing subjectivity and enslaving its affective substance to aims of social and civic progress. The present paper intends to contribute to address such a challenge. To this end, it proposes an interpretation of the affectivization spreading the contemporary social landscape, based on current debate in cognitive sciences. On this grounds, the general idea that such a phenomenon is something different from and more than a mere epidemy of irrationality - as it is more or less implicitly treated by observers and analysts- is deepened. Following that, strategic and methodological implications for higher education are discussed. It is called for an extension of the function of higher education, in the direction of taking charge of the demand of symbolic resources required to address the uncertainty generated by the contemporary socio-institutional turmoil.

This study deepens the analysis of how the physician’s role is represented in contemporary society and how such a representation affects the patient’s propensity to comply. 468 patients were asked to fill out a questionnaire aimed at detecting the representation of the medical role. The level of compliance was measured by means of a multiple 4-point Likert scale with ques-tions on five aspects: therapy, advice on health, hygienic rules, prohibited behaviours, sugges-tions for a healthy life-style. A procedure combining multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis was applied to identify response profiles, corresponding to different represen-tations of the physician’s role. Univariate analysis (ANOVA) was performed to compare clus-ters on compliance levels. Four profiles were identified; the physician is represented in turn as affiliative authority, idealized friend, competent advisor or disappointing opponent. Significant differences were found in the level of compliance characterizing each representation. The find-ings suggest that the knowledge of the ways patients represent their relationship with the phy-sician is a crucial area for a better understanding of the different patient compliance levels.

La scuola si confronta oggi con un’utenza eterogenea e differenziata in termini di aspettative, caratteristiche e modi di partecipazione alla vita scolastica. Sempre piu spesso, i modelli culturali degli studenti appaiono incompatibili con gli obiettivi e le regole richieste dalle istituzioni formative. Inscrivendosi entro un approccio psicodinamico e culturale all’apprendimento, gli autori suggeriscono l’utilita di un modello di relazione educativa che consideri la cooperazione tra docente e studenti l’output di un processo volto ad esplicitare ed elaborare i codici simbolico affettivi con i quali gli studenti interpretano il setting educativo.

Research in psychotherapy. The method and the scientific tests in psychotherapy - In this paper the Authors face the topic of state of the art psychotherapy research in Italy, which is now strongly debated. The research importance and more importantly, to do and practice a research project, is not only a scientific or an academic problem but also has ethic relevance. To give a patient evidence supported treatment is very important, and it is, at the same time, very important to teach our students a very effective and efficacious treatment for their own patients.A wide examination of research methodology will be done and particularly the actual debates between single case research and randomized controlled trial. Key Words: Psychotherapy Research, Single Case Research, Randomised Controlled Trial, Efficacy in Psychotherapy, Evaluation in Psychotherapy.

Analys of Images of the Public Relations Department (Urp) of the Health Territorial Services (Asl) of an Italian Southern City (by Stefano Manzo, Sergio Salvatore, Claudia Venuleo, Cosetta Olive, Sonia Giausa) - We present the goals, the methodology and the findings of a research aimed at analysing the Image of the Public Relations Department (Urp) of the Health Territorial Services (Asl) of an Italian Southern City. According to the findings we propose to see Urp as a strategic device in leading the Health Service to understand the community demand of health. Keywords: Immage, Urp, Health Services

La questione qualità occupa un posto di grande rilievo nel mondo universitario, sebbene con un’attenzione quasi esclusiva verso la didattica e la ricerca. Ma all’interno di una visione di servizio dell’organizzazione dei processi formativi, molto rilevante è la qualità dell’esperienza personale e sociale degli studenti. In tal senso, l’approccio psicosociale offre un contributo decisivo al miglioramento continuo di una qualità dall’accezione più estesa.

Una raccolta di scritti in onore di Franco Di Maria, in occasione dei suoi 65 anni. Direttore del Dipartimento di Psicologia di Palermo, ha alternato le prime ricerche sulle dinamiche del “sentire mafioso” e dell’aggressività alle riflessioni sulla metodologia e la Psicologia critica. Successivamente si è indirizzato verso una psicologia dinamica intrisa di psico-politica e di convivenza civile: quella Psicologia psicologica cui la raccolta fa riferimento.