Focus: There are no longer the children (but above all the parents) of the past: a psychoanalytical look at parenthood and perinatal psychology
23 April 2021
Vol. 32 No. 1 (2021)
https://doi.org/10.4081/rp.2021.431

One Cannot Touch Without Being Touched: Why Psychoanalysis Needs to Draw from the Perinatal, and Vice Versa

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Perinatal psychology, psychoanalysis, neonate, parents, contact, dynamic systems, complexity, touch, insula, perinatal wellness, prevention, psychotherapy efficacy.
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Marcello Florita
florita.marcello@hsr.it
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8602-4403
Psychotherapist and psychanalyst of SIPRe is the author of two essays on psychoanalysis, "l'intreccio" and "Alice il porcospino e il fenicottero"; he is also curator of the volume "Benessere e cura nell'esperienza perinatale" edited by the Order of Psychologists in Lombardy. He has written a novel, "Come respira una piuma". He has long been a collaborator of Punto Raf and member of SIPRe, referent for the Perinatal Area in SIPRe Milan, and scientific director of the Course on Perinatal Care, Italy.

There have been numerous innovations in reproductive medicine. They have led to ethical, social, cultural and medical reflections and have urged the need for a contribution on the part of psychology. The article focuses on the challenges to be faced in the mother-infant domain, centring on the wellness of working people and of the users, and provides a re-reading of the transformation processes and changes occurring in the subject who is about to become a parent, or child. As psychoanalysts and scholars, we can benefit from importing the research and acquisitions of the perinatal world into psychoanalysis since much of it analyses relationships prior to birth, albeit in medical terms. The trend that is of greater interest takes into consideration studies on the perception of touch in children, opening up surprising and fascinating scenarios. The author aims at building a bridge to connect these disciplines and create a parallelism between a certain type of touch (gentle touch) which is perceived only by the CT Fibres and connected to a massive activation of the insula, and the relationship between analyst and patient.

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One Cannot Touch Without Being Touched: Why Psychoanalysis Needs to Draw from the Perinatal, and Vice Versa. (2021). Ricerca Psicoanalitica, 32(1). https://doi.org/10.4081/rp.2021.431

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