Vittorio Lingiardi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Vittorio Lingiardi
This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity amo... more This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity among Italian people (Lingiardi et al. 2005). We used the Modern Homophobia Scale (MHS), adapted to be more appropriate for the Italian social and cultural context. Associations were examined between homophobic attitudes, demographics, and personality characteristics and contact with lesbians and gay men. Gender issues were considered twice, from the viewpoint of both the agent and the target of the prejudice. The findings indicated that people at higher risk of possessing homonegative attitudes are older; less educated; more involved in religion and politically conservative; characterized by a more conforming, moralistic, and rule-bound personality, according to Cattell's personality factors; and have poor contact experience with lesbians and gay men. Males tended to have higher levels of homonegativity toward gay men but not toward lesbians. Proposals to reduce antigay bias in the Italian context will be briefly discussed.
RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA, 2014
Attachment & Human Development, 2013
There is currently little empirical evidence regarding how patients' attachment patterns manifest... more There is currently little empirical evidence regarding how patients' attachment patterns manifest in individual psychotherapy. This study compared the in-session discourse of patients classified secure, dismissing, and preoccupied on the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Rather than focusing on content or form alone, this study analyzed how patients' discourse elicits and maintains emotional proximity with the therapist. The AAI was administered to 56 patients prior to treatment and one session for each patient was rated with the Patient Attachment Coding System (PACS) by four independent raters, blind to patients' AAI classification. Significant differences were found in the discourse of patients with different attachment patterns. Namely, secure and preoccupied patients showed more contact-seeking behavior than dismissing patients, who avoided emotional proximity more, while preoccupied patients resisted therapists' help more than did secure and dismissing patients. These results suggest that the different attachment patterns may have distinctive manifestations in the psychotherapy process that can be tracked by external observers.
Psychotherapy, 2013
This article is an attempt to analyze therapist's actions or stra... more This article is an attempt to analyze therapist's actions or strategies that contribute to an effective therapy session and are clinically useful to the therapeutic process. To link the clinical practice to the empirical research, three kinds of therapist interventions, based on the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set, are described. They include (1) an empathic attitude in dealing with the difficulties of the patient and his or her affective experience, (2) the identification and exploration of recurrent themes in the patient's experience or conduct, and (3) addressing a patient's defenses, to ward off awareness of threatening feelings. For each of these interventions, the author provides both clinical and research data that support their use, as well as verbatim clinical exchanges, which allow a better understanding of the mechanisms of therapeutic actions in real clinical practice.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 2011
... Hartman's call for de-pathologizing life on other realities is welcomed ... is no longer... more ... Hartman's call for de-pathologizing life on other realities is welcomed ... is no longer simply playing different roles in different settings, something that people experience when, for example, a woman wakes up as a lover, makes breakfast as a mother, and drives to work as a lawyer. ...
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2015
This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity amo... more This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity among Italian people . We used the Modern Homophobia Scale (MHS), adapted to be more appropriate for the Italian social and cultural context. Associations were examined between homophobic attitudes, demographics, and personality characteristics and contact with lesbians and gay men. Gender issues were considered twice, from the viewpoint of both the agent and the target of the prejudice. The findings indicated that people at higher risk of possessing homonegative attitudes are older; less educated; more involved in religion and politically conservative; characterized by a more conforming, moralistic, and rule-bound personality, according to Cattell's personality factors; and have poor contact experience with lesbians and gay men. Males tended to have higher levels of homonegativity toward gay men but not toward lesbians. Proposals to reduce antigay bias in the Italian context will be briefly discussed.
Received August 2, 2002; revision received May 12, 2004; accepted May 22, 2004 Homophobia has not... more Received August 2, 2002; revision received May 12, 2004; accepted May 22, 2004 Homophobia has not been systematically studied by Italian social scientists. This study was an initial investigation of the nature of homophobia among Italians, using an Italian version of a scale measuring the construct, and investigated personality and other factors related to homophobia. We examined; a) whether a
Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy, 2001
Homosexualities, like heterosexualities, are numerous and the psychological type of “the homosexu... more Homosexualities, like heterosexualities, are numerous and the psychological type of “the homosexual” does not exist. The binary schema of hetero/homo allows us to understand very little of the sexualities of other times and other cultures. Categorization runs the risk of flattening the sexual discourse as human sexuality cannot be completely summed up by using psycho(patho)logical or biological models. In speaking
Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), Jan 10, 2014
Countertransference can be viewed as a source of valuable diagnostic and therapeutic information ... more Countertransference can be viewed as a source of valuable diagnostic and therapeutic information and plays a crucial role in psychotherapy process and outcome. Some empirical researches have showed that patients' specific personality characteristics tend to evoke distinct patterns of emotional response in clinicians. However, to date there have been no studies examining the impact of patients' symptomatology on the association between their personality and therapists' responses. This research aimed to (a) investigate the relationship between patients' symptom severity and clinicians' emotional responses; and (b) explore the possible mediated effect of symptom severity on the relationship between patients' personality pathology and countertransference responses. A sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 198) of different theoretical orientations completed the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 and the Therapist Response Questionnaire on a ...
The International journal of psycho-analysis, 2008
In this paper I describe the impact of cyberspace on the analytical relationship. My reflections ... more In this paper I describe the impact of cyberspace on the analytical relationship. My reflections will move from two clinical histories. In the first history, I describe the case of Melania, a patient who, at a certain moment of her analysis, started sending me e-mails, almost building a 'parallel setting'. I describe the relational dynamics linked to the irruption of the electronic mail into the boundaries of our psychoanalytic relationship. The second case is Louis, a 25 year-old young man with a schizoid personality who uses cyberspace as a psychic retreat. Over the years Louis told me, initially from a sidereal distance, of his necessity to create dissociative moments. The entrance to these retreats procures for Louis an immobile pacification, which may assume the characteristics of a trance: life comes to a halt in a state of 'suspended animation'. We can see the use that Louis makes of the computer as an attempt to live into a non-human object and to protect him...
Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 1999
Taking as our starting point Plato's metaphor of the doctor as philosopher we reflect on some... more Taking as our starting point Plato's metaphor of the doctor as philosopher we reflect on some aspects of the epistemological status of medicine. The framework to this paper is the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer which shows the paradoxical nature of Western medicine in choosing the body-object as its investigative starting point, while in actual fact dealing with subjects. Gadamer proposes a model of medicine as the art of understanding and dialogue, which is capable of bringing together its various constituent parts, i.e. knowledge, knowing how to do and knowing how to be, in medical practice and in the physician's training. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the dyadic figure of the physician as Platonic "master of the living totality" and wounded healer, capable of activating the patient's self-healing capacity.
International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2004
An empirical research a VITTORIO LINGIARDI and b PAOLA CAPOZZI a via Vigevano, 41, I-20144 Milano... more An empirical research a VITTORIO LINGIARDI and b PAOLA CAPOZZI a via Vigevano, 41, I-20144 Milano, Italy -vittorio.lingiardi@uniroma1.it b via Ramazzini 7, I-20129 Milano, Italy -paolacapozzi@tiscalinet.it Homosexuality is a challenging subject for the psychoanalytic community, which is now rethinking some of its basic theoretical and institutional assumptions. In recent decades psychoanalytic theory has changed, and the classical psychosexual model has been challenged. After a short review of major psychoanalytical theories of homosexuality, the authors focus on the existence of contrasting attitudes towards homosexuality. This plurality of theories and their clinical and institutional consequences stimulated the authors to investigate the relationship between the individual analyst's theoretical model and his/her clinical practice. The authors present the results of empirical research conducted in the Italian psychoanalytic community on the attitude of psychoanalysts towards homosexuality and the implications for cultural, theoretical and institutional issues. A questionnaire was sent to 600 psychoanalysts (206 of which responded), members of the ve main Italian psychoanalytic institutions. First, analysts' personal characteristics and preferred theoretical models were investigated. Second, the respondents responded to statements eliciting their theoretical and clinical approach towards homosexuality. Results indicate that: a) cultural and theoretical background in uences the analysts' attitudes towards homosexuality more than gender; b) there is a discrepancy between analysts' theoretical position and their clinical practice; and c) IPA institutes are more discriminatory towards homosexual colleagues than are Jungian ones.
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2013
Several studies have examined the attitudes of heterosexuals towards lesbian and gay parenting, r... more Several studies have examined the attitudes of heterosexuals towards lesbian and gay parenting, revealing mostly negative attitudes. Nonetheless, no research studies have examined these attitudes specifically among elderly adults. Two hundred eighty older heterosexuals adults ranged from 65 to 87 years old (women: M=74.2, SD=6.0; male M=73.9, SD=6.1) completed measures evaluating their knowledge of the existence of lesbian and gay parents, their attitudes towards lesbian and gay parenting and expected child outcomes, and opinions regarding legalization and recognition of lesbian and gay parents. As we expected, age was a relevant predictor of negative attitudes towards lesbian and gay parenting: older elders had a stronger prejudice than the others. Data revealed that the more positive evaluation was for the heterosexual and lesbian parents while the more negative evaluation was for the gay male parents. Regression analyses showed that a negative attitude towards lesbian and gay parents was predicted by older age, right-wing conservatism, and internalized sexual stigma. The expected effects on child outcomes were predicted only by the dimensions of sexual stigma.
Psychotherapy, 2011
This study investigates the relationship between the Depth of elaboration, the therapeutic allian... more This study investigates the relationship between the Depth of elaboration, the therapeutic alliance, and dimensions of the psychotherapy process-the therapist interventions, the patient contributions, and patient/therapist patterns of interaction. Sixty psychotherapy sessions that were audio-taped and transcribed were rated by external judges by using a battery of instruments that included the Psychotherapy The results show a significant positive correlation between Depth and therapeutic alliance, as well as between Depth, therapeutic alliance, and some variables of the therapeutic process. The findings indicate the importance of therapist interventions that focus on the patient's affects, relational patterns, and the "here and now" of the relationship in the increase of the Depth of elaboration and therapeutic alliance. The clinical implications of this study will be discussed.
Psychotherapy Research, 2005
To cite this Article Lingiardi, Vittorio , Filippucci, Ludovica andBaiocco, Roberto 'Therapeutic ... more To cite this Article Lingiardi, Vittorio , Filippucci, Ludovica andBaiocco, Roberto 'Therapeutic alliance evaluation in personality disorders psychotherapy', Psychotherapy Research, 15: 1, 45 -53 To link to this Article:
Psychotherapy Research, 2009
This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity amo... more This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity among Italian people (Lingiardi et al. 2005). We used the Modern Homophobia Scale (MHS), adapted to be more appropriate for the Italian social and cultural context. Associations were examined between homophobic attitudes, demographics, and personality characteristics and contact with lesbians and gay men. Gender issues were considered twice, from the viewpoint of both the agent and the target of the prejudice. The findings indicated that people at higher risk of possessing homonegative attitudes are older; less educated; more involved in religion and politically conservative; characterized by a more conforming, moralistic, and rule-bound personality, according to Cattell's personality factors; and have poor contact experience with lesbians and gay men. Males tended to have higher levels of homonegativity toward gay men but not toward lesbians. Proposals to reduce antigay bias in the Italian context will be briefly discussed.
RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA, 2014
Attachment & Human Development, 2013
There is currently little empirical evidence regarding how patients' attachment patterns manifest... more There is currently little empirical evidence regarding how patients' attachment patterns manifest in individual psychotherapy. This study compared the in-session discourse of patients classified secure, dismissing, and preoccupied on the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Rather than focusing on content or form alone, this study analyzed how patients' discourse elicits and maintains emotional proximity with the therapist. The AAI was administered to 56 patients prior to treatment and one session for each patient was rated with the Patient Attachment Coding System (PACS) by four independent raters, blind to patients' AAI classification. Significant differences were found in the discourse of patients with different attachment patterns. Namely, secure and preoccupied patients showed more contact-seeking behavior than dismissing patients, who avoided emotional proximity more, while preoccupied patients resisted therapists' help more than did secure and dismissing patients. These results suggest that the different attachment patterns may have distinctive manifestations in the psychotherapy process that can be tracked by external observers.
Psychotherapy, 2013
This article is an attempt to analyze therapist's actions or stra... more This article is an attempt to analyze therapist's actions or strategies that contribute to an effective therapy session and are clinically useful to the therapeutic process. To link the clinical practice to the empirical research, three kinds of therapist interventions, based on the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set, are described. They include (1) an empathic attitude in dealing with the difficulties of the patient and his or her affective experience, (2) the identification and exploration of recurrent themes in the patient's experience or conduct, and (3) addressing a patient's defenses, to ward off awareness of threatening feelings. For each of these interventions, the author provides both clinical and research data that support their use, as well as verbatim clinical exchanges, which allow a better understanding of the mechanisms of therapeutic actions in real clinical practice.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 2011
... Hartman's call for de-pathologizing life on other realities is welcomed ... is no longer... more ... Hartman's call for de-pathologizing life on other realities is welcomed ... is no longer simply playing different roles in different settings, something that people experience when, for example, a woman wakes up as a lover, makes breakfast as a mother, and drives to work as a lawyer. ...
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2015
This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity amo... more This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity among Italian people . We used the Modern Homophobia Scale (MHS), adapted to be more appropriate for the Italian social and cultural context. Associations were examined between homophobic attitudes, demographics, and personality characteristics and contact with lesbians and gay men. Gender issues were considered twice, from the viewpoint of both the agent and the target of the prejudice. The findings indicated that people at higher risk of possessing homonegative attitudes are older; less educated; more involved in religion and politically conservative; characterized by a more conforming, moralistic, and rule-bound personality, according to Cattell's personality factors; and have poor contact experience with lesbians and gay men. Males tended to have higher levels of homonegativity toward gay men but not toward lesbians. Proposals to reduce antigay bias in the Italian context will be briefly discussed.
Received August 2, 2002; revision received May 12, 2004; accepted May 22, 2004 Homophobia has not... more Received August 2, 2002; revision received May 12, 2004; accepted May 22, 2004 Homophobia has not been systematically studied by Italian social scientists. This study was an initial investigation of the nature of homophobia among Italians, using an Italian version of a scale measuring the construct, and investigated personality and other factors related to homophobia. We examined; a) whether a
Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy, 2001
Homosexualities, like heterosexualities, are numerous and the psychological type of “the homosexu... more Homosexualities, like heterosexualities, are numerous and the psychological type of “the homosexual” does not exist. The binary schema of hetero/homo allows us to understand very little of the sexualities of other times and other cultures. Categorization runs the risk of flattening the sexual discourse as human sexuality cannot be completely summed up by using psycho(patho)logical or biological models. In speaking
Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), Jan 10, 2014
Countertransference can be viewed as a source of valuable diagnostic and therapeutic information ... more Countertransference can be viewed as a source of valuable diagnostic and therapeutic information and plays a crucial role in psychotherapy process and outcome. Some empirical researches have showed that patients' specific personality characteristics tend to evoke distinct patterns of emotional response in clinicians. However, to date there have been no studies examining the impact of patients' symptomatology on the association between their personality and therapists' responses. This research aimed to (a) investigate the relationship between patients' symptom severity and clinicians' emotional responses; and (b) explore the possible mediated effect of symptom severity on the relationship between patients' personality pathology and countertransference responses. A sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 198) of different theoretical orientations completed the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 and the Therapist Response Questionnaire on a ...
The International journal of psycho-analysis, 2008
In this paper I describe the impact of cyberspace on the analytical relationship. My reflections ... more In this paper I describe the impact of cyberspace on the analytical relationship. My reflections will move from two clinical histories. In the first history, I describe the case of Melania, a patient who, at a certain moment of her analysis, started sending me e-mails, almost building a 'parallel setting'. I describe the relational dynamics linked to the irruption of the electronic mail into the boundaries of our psychoanalytic relationship. The second case is Louis, a 25 year-old young man with a schizoid personality who uses cyberspace as a psychic retreat. Over the years Louis told me, initially from a sidereal distance, of his necessity to create dissociative moments. The entrance to these retreats procures for Louis an immobile pacification, which may assume the characteristics of a trance: life comes to a halt in a state of 'suspended animation'. We can see the use that Louis makes of the computer as an attempt to live into a non-human object and to protect him...
Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 1999
Taking as our starting point Plato's metaphor of the doctor as philosopher we reflect on some... more Taking as our starting point Plato's metaphor of the doctor as philosopher we reflect on some aspects of the epistemological status of medicine. The framework to this paper is the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer which shows the paradoxical nature of Western medicine in choosing the body-object as its investigative starting point, while in actual fact dealing with subjects. Gadamer proposes a model of medicine as the art of understanding and dialogue, which is capable of bringing together its various constituent parts, i.e. knowledge, knowing how to do and knowing how to be, in medical practice and in the physician's training. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the dyadic figure of the physician as Platonic "master of the living totality" and wounded healer, capable of activating the patient's self-healing capacity.
International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2004
An empirical research a VITTORIO LINGIARDI and b PAOLA CAPOZZI a via Vigevano, 41, I-20144 Milano... more An empirical research a VITTORIO LINGIARDI and b PAOLA CAPOZZI a via Vigevano, 41, I-20144 Milano, Italy -vittorio.lingiardi@uniroma1.it b via Ramazzini 7, I-20129 Milano, Italy -paolacapozzi@tiscalinet.it Homosexuality is a challenging subject for the psychoanalytic community, which is now rethinking some of its basic theoretical and institutional assumptions. In recent decades psychoanalytic theory has changed, and the classical psychosexual model has been challenged. After a short review of major psychoanalytical theories of homosexuality, the authors focus on the existence of contrasting attitudes towards homosexuality. This plurality of theories and their clinical and institutional consequences stimulated the authors to investigate the relationship between the individual analyst's theoretical model and his/her clinical practice. The authors present the results of empirical research conducted in the Italian psychoanalytic community on the attitude of psychoanalysts towards homosexuality and the implications for cultural, theoretical and institutional issues. A questionnaire was sent to 600 psychoanalysts (206 of which responded), members of the ve main Italian psychoanalytic institutions. First, analysts' personal characteristics and preferred theoretical models were investigated. Second, the respondents responded to statements eliciting their theoretical and clinical approach towards homosexuality. Results indicate that: a) cultural and theoretical background in uences the analysts' attitudes towards homosexuality more than gender; b) there is a discrepancy between analysts' theoretical position and their clinical practice; and c) IPA institutes are more discriminatory towards homosexual colleagues than are Jungian ones.
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2013
Several studies have examined the attitudes of heterosexuals towards lesbian and gay parenting, r... more Several studies have examined the attitudes of heterosexuals towards lesbian and gay parenting, revealing mostly negative attitudes. Nonetheless, no research studies have examined these attitudes specifically among elderly adults. Two hundred eighty older heterosexuals adults ranged from 65 to 87 years old (women: M=74.2, SD=6.0; male M=73.9, SD=6.1) completed measures evaluating their knowledge of the existence of lesbian and gay parents, their attitudes towards lesbian and gay parenting and expected child outcomes, and opinions regarding legalization and recognition of lesbian and gay parents. As we expected, age was a relevant predictor of negative attitudes towards lesbian and gay parenting: older elders had a stronger prejudice than the others. Data revealed that the more positive evaluation was for the heterosexual and lesbian parents while the more negative evaluation was for the gay male parents. Regression analyses showed that a negative attitude towards lesbian and gay parents was predicted by older age, right-wing conservatism, and internalized sexual stigma. The expected effects on child outcomes were predicted only by the dimensions of sexual stigma.
Psychotherapy, 2011
This study investigates the relationship between the Depth of elaboration, the therapeutic allian... more This study investigates the relationship between the Depth of elaboration, the therapeutic alliance, and dimensions of the psychotherapy process-the therapist interventions, the patient contributions, and patient/therapist patterns of interaction. Sixty psychotherapy sessions that were audio-taped and transcribed were rated by external judges by using a battery of instruments that included the Psychotherapy The results show a significant positive correlation between Depth and therapeutic alliance, as well as between Depth, therapeutic alliance, and some variables of the therapeutic process. The findings indicate the importance of therapist interventions that focus on the patient's affects, relational patterns, and the "here and now" of the relationship in the increase of the Depth of elaboration and therapeutic alliance. The clinical implications of this study will be discussed.
Psychotherapy Research, 2005
To cite this Article Lingiardi, Vittorio , Filippucci, Ludovica andBaiocco, Roberto 'Therapeutic ... more To cite this Article Lingiardi, Vittorio , Filippucci, Ludovica andBaiocco, Roberto 'Therapeutic alliance evaluation in personality disorders psychotherapy', Psychotherapy Research, 15: 1, 45 -53 To link to this Article:
Psychotherapy Research, 2009