After an Introductory Note by Pier Francesco Galli, a plenary lecture he gave at the meeting "The Dictatorship of the Present. The Individual Uneasiness Related to the Changing Parameters in Orienting Ourselves in Current Realty", organized by the "Italian Center for Analytical Psychology" (CIPA) of Milan, Italy, on March 21-22, 2009, is published. Within this lecture, some excerpts of other essays are quoted. In particular, extended quotations from a paper presented on July 11, 2007, within the series of seminars titled "Pathways of Research, Promotion and Maintenance of Mental Health Today" organized in Rome by the Italian Ministry of Health, are reported. Some aspects of the history of the Jungian approach in Italy are de-scribed, and various considerations on the problem of psychiatric practice in mental health ser-vices are made. Among other things, the following topics are discussed: the transformation of Italian Community Mental Health Centers’ management into institutions operated under the prin-ciples of a private company; interaction of the therapist’s person with his/her technique; the issue of procedures and the difficulty decision making within a situation of uncertainty; leadership in community mental health centers; the crisis of critical thinking; the therapist’s personality factors in psychiatric work; and so on.
Keywords: History of Jungian approach in Italy; Management of mental health services according to the principles of a private company; Leadership in psychiatry; Psychiatric services; Role of the therapist’s person in psychiatric work