Traumi fraterni - Contemporary clinical psychology offers rough tools for theoretical understanding and practical intervening on promoting transformation from tormented or indifferent brotherly relationships to satisfying ones. It is a common, wrongly held belief that rivalry among brothers undergoes spontaneous remission and that it fades in the course of time. The method of infant observation, as formulated by Esther Bick, allows to tackle the parents’ responsibility in increasing or in solving the rivalry among brothers: it may therefore provide useful advices relevant to clinical practice.