Stefano Pirrotta | Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" di Roma (original) (raw)

Papers by Stefano Pirrotta

Qualitative Research Methods in Mental Health, 2021

Emotional Textual Analysis (ETA) is a psychoanalytically informed method of text and discourse an... more Emotional Textual Analysis (ETA) is a psychoanalytically informed method of text and discourse analysis that was developed in the 1980s as a tool for psychological research and intervention with social groups, institutions, and organizations. ETA hypothesizes that emotions expressed in language are a fundamental organizer of relationships. By detecting clusters of emotionally dense words within a text (through a procedure that combines quantitative—software supported—and qualitative data analysis), this method enables the exploration of the unconscious emotional dynamics underpinning processes of sense-making within social groups and organizations. This chapter aims to discuss the contribution that the ETA methodology can offer today to mental health studies. We will present two case studies. (a) In the first one, ETA served to shed light on a new issue that has arisen in the mental health field: an unprecedented increase over the last few decades in psychiatric diagnosis related to children’s difficulties at school. (b) In the second one, ETA was used within the framework of a 3-year intervention-research with a healthcare organization providing services for adult disability. The organization was stuck in a growing conflict with the family members of the service users. Our results corroborate the hypothesis that contemporary mental health risks—as well as demands and developmental trajectories—cannot be understood by looking solely at the individual; it is crucial to bring them back into the current dynamics of social coexistence, by means of methodologies that allow us to study the relationship between individuals and changing social contexts.

[ Research paper thumbnail of I servizi per la disabilità nella regione Croata di Vokovar e Siriem: Intervista con Zana Skejo Skoric [The services for disability in the Croatian region of Vukovar e Siriem: Interview with Zana Skejo Skoric](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/88889307/thumbnails/1.jpg)

The authors propose an interview with Zana SkejoSkoric, Project Manager of the Association of Per... more The authors propose an interview with Zana SkejoSkoric, Project Manager of the Association of Persons with disability "Bubamara", specialised in providing social services within the north Eastern Croatian region of Vukovar and Siriem. The interviewee explores the deinstitutionalisation process resulting from Croatia's entry to the European Union and the construction of the territorial services, developing some reflections on the demand that the families with disability pose to her organization. Considering her professional experience, Zana Skejo Skoric, underlines the problems faced in the application of a model of social assistance oriented to guarantee the surviving of the persons with disability substituting the family members in the assistance functions. In this regard, the interviewee asks herself how to organize services for persons with disability that are going back to their family units due to the closing of mental hospitals. It is underlined the importance of...

Funding of the project from the European Commission is gratefully acknowledged. Collaboration of ... more Funding of the project from the European Commission is gratefully acknowledged. Collaboration of the Department of Earth Sciences and the Department of Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering-DICEA is gratefully acknowledged. A special thank you to the citizens who participated in the research.

The European vision outlined, which is only one of many visions possible, is a result of a three ... more The European vision outlined, which is only one of many visions possible, is a result of a three year learning process. The R&Dialogue consortium discussed the experiences made and lessons learned during the ten country dialogues. Based on these findings an overall vision for Europe has been constructed. The vision tries to highlight the insights of this mutual learning process, but clearly it does not necessarily reflect the opinions and interests of all the external stakeholders involved. The chapter ‘Vision for Europe in 2050’ lays out the characteristics of a possible low- carbon Europe in the future. The chapter ‘Ways of getting to the low-carbon society’ gives recommendations for how to achieve this transition.

Research has been conducted in the ECO2 project to identify the core factors and processes which ... more Research has been conducted in the ECO2 project to identify the core factors and processes which determine the public perception of CO 2 geological storage, attempting to advance the state of the art by investigating in-depth psychological and psychodynamic dimensions. The aim was not only to build upon previous work to describe and explain the present representations of the technology, but rather to try to identify the constitutive elements that influence them. To this end, different methods and approaches were used in Italy and Scotland, from Emotional Text Analysis to the Voice Centred approach, from psychodynamic elaboration to cognitive approach analysis. Creating such opportunities, with the participation of different stakeholders, such as politicians, operators, public authorities, researchers and civil society organisations, could support the development of a more advanced understanding of the possible role of CO 2 geological storage in our society. In specific situations, such as the implementation of a CCS facility, this approach could help decision making processes and the roll out of projects. wrote a series of Briefing Notes on CCS, intended for stakeholders and informed / curious members of the public who are willing to devote 30 minutes of their time in reading each of the Notes. No prior expert knowledge is assumed, but a general technical understanding is likely to help comprehension of the Briefing Notes.

The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit (COU) of an It... more The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit (COU) of an Italian Local Health Authority realizing services for adult with disability and their family members. After the recognition by the managment and the operators of problems in the relationship with the service users and the absence of shared working criteria, the Local Culture of the COU has been analyzed to develop its organizational competence. Posed as a premise the crysis faced by the sociosanitary services in relation to the collusive failures of both the sanitary and the assistive paradigm, the intervention is reported starting from the committment meetings. Therefore the authors presents the results of the research in which 26 interviews to the sociosanitary personnel have been realized and analyzed with the Emotional Text Analysis. The research shows the crysis of a self-referred organizational model, the difficulty in being client oriented and in defining problems to treat. This cry...

The R&Dialogue project has facilitated ten low-carbon dialogues with representatives from energy,... more The R&Dialogue project has facilitated ten low-carbon dialogues with representatives from energy, the low-carbon R&D community, social actors and others. In each of the ten countries involved, a ‘coalition of the willing' explored the challenges and articulated their view on improving the dialogue. This European Dialogue Report is a collection of these experiences, and it reflects upon the themes emerging from those dialogues.

With its Communication “Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” the ... more With its Communication “Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” the European Commission in 2010 committed the Member States to pursue a significant decarbonisation of European society. The European Commission Research & Innovation has encouraged several research projects and exchange of experiences, with the aim of increasing Europe's capacity to achieve this objective. In this context RD b) and on how it contributed to develop the collaboration among consortium members towards the achievement of the objectives of the project.

The authors present an interview with Jamie Rutherford, performance manager of Enable Works, depa... more The authors present an interview with Jamie Rutherford, performance manager of Enable Works, department of the not for profit organization Enable Scotland, providing services for the supported employment of persons with disabilities. The interview with Rutherford draws a picture of an organization, since many years engaged in the construction of territorial services in Scotland, moving from a perspective aimed to rehabilitate/cure the person with disability to a perspective aimed to build competences within productive activities. For Rutherford the working inclusion represents an useful end to promote the social integration of persons with disabilities that poses the families and the persons with disabilities in front of opportunities and risks related to get in touch with contexts lived by the families as “not protected”. Within the interview Rutherford deals with these issues reflecting of the complex relationship between the families, the territorial services, the local authoriti...

The authors proposes an interview with Zana Skejo Skoric, project manager of the Association of P... more The authors proposes an interview with Zana Skejo Skoric, project manager of the Association of Persons with Disabilities “Bubamara” providing social services within the north eastern Croatian region of Vukovar and Siriem. The interviewee explores the de institutionalization process resulting from the entering of the Croatia in to the European Union and the construction of the territorial services developing some reflections on the demand that the families with disability pose to her organization. Considering her professional experience, Zana Skejo Skoric, underlines the problems faced in the application of model of social assistance oriented to substitute the family members in the assistance functions. In this regard, the interviewee asks herself how to organize services for persons with disabilities that are coming back to their families due to the closing of the mental hospitals. It is underlined the importance of offering services limiting the social isolation of the persons wit...

L’assistenza agli anziani sta diventando un settore di intervento cruciale per le organizzazioni ... more L’assistenza agli anziani sta diventando un settore di intervento cruciale per le organizzazioni sociosanitarie chiamate a rispondere alla crescente domanda di famiglie che chiedono di non essere emarginate con i problemi connessi all’invecchiamento. A partire da tale premessa, si propone una metodologia di intervento psicosociale utile a supportare le organizzazioni sociosanitarie nel rapportarsi a questa domanda e ai cambiamenti culturali entro cui essa si colloca, al fine di potenziare l’efficacia dei loro servizi. Si resoconta quindi un lavoro di consulenza organizzativa richiesto da una cooperativa sociale in merito ad un problema rilevato in un proprio servizio semiresidenziale rivolto ad anziani non-autosufficienti. In particolare l’articolo descrive i problemi fondanti la richiesta di consulenza, le dimensioni metodologiche dell’intervento e i suoi risultati.

L’articolo propone ipotesi di sviluppo della professione psicologica. A fronte della crisi del me... more L’articolo propone ipotesi di sviluppo della professione psicologica. A fronte della crisi del mercato del lavoro della psicologia, si prospetta la possibilita di fare impresa, ovvero di interessarsi alle dinamiche della convivenza sociale, esplorandone con categorie cliniche i cambiamenti, al fine di istituire nuove e competenti proposte professionali. Gli Autori sostengono l’ipotesi che fare impresa in psicologia significhi sviluppare competenza organizzativa nel rapporto con i colleghi e con i clienti, utile a costruire servizi non conformistici, ossia servizi orientati all’intervento su problemi che riguardano la convivenza sociale e le difficolta che oggi in essa si manifestano. Assumono rilevanza i nuovi lavori in cui gli psicologi sono implicati entro ruoli differenti, in quanto contesti in cui si fa esperienza di specifici e interessanti problemi, che mettono in crisi i sistemi di appartenenza e che possono essere trattati costruendo nuovi servizi libero professionali.Vengon...

L’articolo resoconta una ricerca-intervento realizzata presso una Unita Operativa Complessa di un... more L’articolo resoconta una ricerca-intervento realizzata presso una Unita Operativa Complessa di un’Azienda Sanitaria Locale di una grande citta italiana che realizza servizi per adulti con disabilita e i loro familiari. La ricerca ha esplorato le attese di un gruppo 90 persone, sia utenti che loro familiari, nei confronti dell’Unita Operativa. L’esplorazione e stata motivata dalla difficolta da parte degli operatori di analizzare e trattare la domanda dell’utenza e ha permesso di confrontare la cultura locale dell’utenza con la cultura locale degli operatori del servizio, precedentemente analizzata (Bisogni & Pirrotta, 2018). Le interviste sono state analizzate tramite l’Analisi Emozionale del Testo. Dalla ricerca e emerso come la domanda verso l’Unita Operativa sia motivata dalla crisi di convivenza del contesto familiare, crisi fondata sulla difficolta di sviluppare condivisione di desideri in alternativa all’obbligo all’accudimento. Tale crisi e associata alla medicalizzazione di ...

The authors present an interview with Dana Migaliova president of Association of Lithuanian Welfa... more The authors present an interview with Dana Migaliova president of Association of Lithuanian Welfare Societies of Person with Mental Disabilities -Viltis. Retracing the de-institutionalization process and the construction of territorial services for disability in Lithuania, the interviewee reflects on the development of the relationships between families, professionals and local politicians. In particular, Migaliova underlines the changing of the demands of the families during the time and the transition of the families from being actively involved in the construction of the services to consider the services as given and guaranteed by the state a priori. In this regard, it is critically read the role of the European Union and of the international foundations in promoting the development of the territorial services and the dissemination of the human rights' culture within the NGO movement. The paper end with some conclusive reflection on the opportunity to consider the families as...

Twentieth Anniversary Special Issue

This article aims to contribute to the special issue for the twentieth anniversary of the Organis... more This article aims to contribute to the special issue for the twentieth anniversary of the Organisational and Social Dynamics journal presenting a semiotic action–research method called emotional textual analysis (ETA). ETA, developed in Italy by the Studio of Psychosociology and the Chair of Clinical Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome, is an explorative abductive method that consents to analyse how the organisation symbolically interacts with its context. In ETA methodology the interdependence between the organisational system and the client system is considered as the product of socially shared emotional cultures. This article describes the theoretical and methodological foundation of the ETA method and presents the results of a recent action–research project carried out by the authors within a National Health System organisation. In the conclusion, the added value of using ETA to work with organisations facing contextual changes in the current historical period is discussed.

The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit of a Italian L... more The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit of a Italian Local Health Authority providing sociosanitary services for adults with disability and their family members. The research explored, with the Emotional Text Analysis, the local culture of 90 adults with disability and their family members regarding their expectations towards the organization and the services used. The research was motivated by the opeators’ difficulty in analyzing the users’ demand and expectations, as highlighted by a previous research that explored the operators’ local culture (Bisogni & Pirrotta 2018). The research results presented here show that the cohabitation crisis in the family context motivates the clients’ demand towards the organization. The crisis is linked to the difficulty in developing relationships based on sharing desirers, as an alternative to the assistance’s obligation between family members. This is also associated with a dynamic of medicalization of relational problems and with the infantilization of the adults with disability. The research participants express the demand to discuss the emotional problems experienced within the families and the desire to participate in the verification of the used services.

The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit (COU) of an It... more The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit (COU) of an Italian Local Health Authority realizing services for adult with disability and their family members. After the
recognition by the management and the operators of problems in the relationship with the service users and the absence of shared working criteria, the Local Culture of the COU has been analysed to develop its
organizational competence. Posed as a premise the crisis faced by the sociosanitary services in relation to the collusive failures of both the sanitary and the assistive paradigm, the intervention is reported starting from the commitment meetings. Therefore, the authors present the results of the research in which 26 interviews to the sociosanitary personnel have been realized and analysed with the Emotional Text Analysis. The research shows the crisis of a self-referred organizational model, the difficulty in being client oriented and in defining problems to treat. This crisis seems associated to the medicalization and to the infantilization of the adult with disability, as to the feeling of being obligated to respond to all the requests of the families. In the final part of the paper the authors report the research data restitution and the products of the intervention.

With its Communication " Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth " th... more With its Communication " Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth " the European Commission in 2010 committed the Member States to pursue a significant decarbonisation of European society. The European Commission Research & Innovation has encouraged several research projects and exchange of experiences, with the aim of increasing Europe's capacity to achieve this objective. In this context R&Dialogue Research and Civil Society Dialogue towards a low-carbon society is a project promoted, under 7 th Framework Programme, by 17 European organizations in 10 Member States, aiming to improve the dialogue between research and civil society organizations. Emotional Text Analysis (ETA) was used to identify, at the beginning of the project, the cultural dimensions in the consortium that could better support dialogue. This paper contribution reports about: a) the analysis conducted on 49 English language interviews to project's partners; b) and on how it contributed to develop the collaboration among consortium members towards the achievement of the objectives of the project.

The authors present an interview with Dana Migaliova president of Association of Lithuanian Welfa... more The authors present an interview with Dana Migaliova president of Association of Lithuanian Welfare Societies
of Person with Mental Disabilities -Viltis. Retracing the deinstitutionalization process and the construction of
territorial services for disability in Lithuania, the interviewee reflects on the development of the relationships
between families, professionals and local politicians. In particular, Migaliova underlines the changing of the
demands of the families during the time and the transition of the families from being actively involved in the
construction of the services to consider the services as given and guaranteed by the state a priori. In this regard, it
is critically read the role of the European Union and of the international foundations in promoting the
development of the territorial services and the dissemination of the human rights’ culture within the NGO
movement. The paper end with some conclusive reflection on the opportunity to consider the families as clients
of the services for disability to develop their quality and efficacy.

Qualitative Research Methods in Mental Health, 2021

Twentieth Anniversary Special Issue

The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit (COU) of an It... more The paper reports a research-intervention realized within a Complex Operative Unit (COU) of an Italian Local Health Authority realizing services for adult with disability and their family members. After the
recognition by the management and the operators of problems in the relationship with the service users and the absence of shared working criteria, the Local Culture of the COU has been analysed to develop its
organizational competence. Posed as a premise the crisis faced by the sociosanitary services in relation to the collusive failures of both the sanitary and the assistive paradigm, the intervention is reported starting from the commitment meetings. Therefore, the authors present the results of the research in which 26 interviews to the sociosanitary personnel have been realized and analysed with the Emotional Text Analysis. The research shows the crisis of a self-referred organizational model, the difficulty in being client oriented and in defining problems to treat. This crisis seems associated to the medicalization and to the infantilization of the adult with disability, as to the feeling of being obligated to respond to all the requests of the families. In the final part of the paper the authors report the research data restitution and the products of the intervention.

The authors present an interview with Dana Migaliova president of Association of Lithuanian Welfa... more The authors present an interview with Dana Migaliova president of Association of Lithuanian Welfare Societies
of Person with Mental Disabilities -Viltis. Retracing the deinstitutionalization process and the construction of
territorial services for disability in Lithuania, the interviewee reflects on the development of the relationships
between families, professionals and local politicians. In particular, Migaliova underlines the changing of the
demands of the families during the time and the transition of the families from being actively involved in the
construction of the services to consider the services as given and guaranteed by the state a priori. In this regard, it
is critically read the role of the European Union and of the international foundations in promoting the
development of the territorial services and the dissemination of the human rights’ culture within the NGO
movement. The paper end with some conclusive reflection on the opportunity to consider the families as clients
of the services for disability to develop their quality and efficacy.

The term " psychosocial " is mostly used in mental health research to emphasise the role of socia... more The term " psychosocial " is mostly used in mental health research to emphasise the role of social and political factors in mental health problems, in contrast to the historically dominant biomedical model; at the same time, the term " psychosocial studies " defines a critical inter-disciplinary approach, theoretically committed to investigate the link between subjective experience and social processes assuming their constant interdependence and vital tension. The notion of psychosocial will be placed at the heart of this symposium, not only in terms of critical and theoretical reflection, but principally for the key questions it raises today regarding models and methods of psychological intervention. First, we will examine two psychoanalytically inflected methods of textual and discourse analysis – i.e., Emotional Textual Analysis (ETA) and Lacanian Discourse Analysis (LDA) – the use of which within psychosocial interventions with social groups, institutions and organisations has engendered meaningful results and new perspectives in mental health. Then, three research contributions using ETA in the context of school education, adult disability and migration, will show how in order to understand mental health problems and risks as well as related demands and evolutive trajectories, it is crucial to re-inscribe them into the increasingly complex dynamics of social coexistence.

Contributions:
- EMOTIONAL TEXTUAL ANALYSIS (ETA) AND LACANIAN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (LDA) COMPARED
Fiorella Bucci, Katia Romelli

- WHAT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL CULTURE AND DIAGNOSTIC
CULTURE IN ITALY NOWADAYS
Rosa Maria Paniccia, Felice Bisogni, Alberta Mazzola, Stefano Pirrotta

- THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADULTS WITH DISABILITY, THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES: AN EXPLORATORY ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT THROUGH EMOTIONAL TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Felice Bisogni, Stefano Pirrotta

- HOSPITALITY FOR MIGRANTS IN A TIME OF GLOBALISATION: A
PSYCHOSOCIAL STUDY FOSTERING DEBATE ABOUT COHABITATION AND DIVERSITY
Rosa Maria Paniccia, Graziana Di Noja, Francesca Romana Dolcetti

In this paper the authors present a research committed by a local authority to explore the relati... more In this paper the authors present a research committed by a local authority to explore the relationship between not self-sufficient elders, their family members and the community based assistance services they uses. The exploratory data analysis, conducted with the Emotional Text Analysis (ETA) (Carli, Paniccia, 2002), was used to identify emotional and cultural factors related to the experience of assisting and being assisted at home and within the community based services. The ETA has been realized on an assembled text corpus produced transcribing 45 audio recorded interviews to not self-sufficient elders and their family members, patients of general practitioners and/or users of the community based services (home-based and half-residential). The
interviews has been processed with T-Lab statistic software (Lancia, 2004) and ETA has been applied to produce a clusters analysis. Four clusters of dense words related to each others on 3 factorial axes emerged. From the factorial axes emerges a emotional representation of elderlness as a continuos allert related to the risk of dyng
and as a depressive prescription to survive related to the pretension to be assisted within their own family in virtue of “blood ties”. The reciprocal control and contentiousness, and the desirers to transgress the obligation of care giving and being cared are some relevant emotions emerging by the ETA. The research's results shows also a demand of a new assistance model emerges, founded on the possibility to talk, to play and to have fun with others. Finally it emerges a demand of services not only dealing with medical problems but also providing psychological support and training to the families to develop relational competences and to build reliable relationship out of the family. In the conclusions of the paper some considerations regarding the relationships between the clusters on the factorial axes and between clusters and illustrative variables are highlithed.