Department of Humanities

Questo lavoro propone una prima ricognizione concernente le origini della psicologia clinica statunitense, tra Ottocento e Novecento, sullo sfondo di un’interpretazione storiografica che ipotizza una ‘pluralità di matrici’ della stessa psicologia clinica, legata alle differenti prospettive teoriche e ai diversi contesti socio-culturali. Vengono in particolare prese in esame le principali questioni fondative della disciplina, ricorrendo ad alcuni scritti di Lightner Witmer, al quale si deve la realizzazione della prima ‘clinica psicologica’ per soggetti in età evolutiva caratterizzati da «retardation or physical defects interfering with school progress», e di uno studioso meno noto, John E.W. Wallin. Entrambi gli autori si preoccupano, infatti, di definire la psicologia clinica, differenziandola da altre branche mediche e psicologiche, di stabilire qual è l’ambito di competenza dello psicologo clinico, di delineare la sua formazione e di precisare scopi e contenuti del suo intervento. Viene poi trattato il rapporto psicologi-psichiatri al suo emergere, facendo specifico riferimento a un documento della Società psichiatrica di new york, che rappresenta uno dei primi tentativi di escludere gli psicologi clinici dal campo della salute mentale, riferendo altresì sulla replica a tale presa di posizione firmata da Shepherd Franz. Dopo un accenno alla situazione italiana dagli anni Cinquanta a oggi, l’articolo si conclude sottolineando come almeno alcuni degli interrogativi di base che la psicologia clinica si è trovata ad affrontare alla sua nascita siano tuttora attuali, pur filtrati attraverso l’intenso dibattito che si è svolto nel corso degli anni, e sostenendo di conseguenza l’importanza di una componente storica nella formazione degli psicologi clinici contemporanei.

This work proposes an initial survey on the origins of American clinical psychology between the nineteenth and twentieth century, against a backdrop of historiographical interpretation that hypothesizes a “plurality of matrices” of clinical psychology, linked to different theoretical perspectives and different socio-cultural contexts. Particular attention is focused upon the main foundational issues of the discipline, drawing from some of the writings of Lightner Witmer, to whom we owe the founding of the first “clinical psychology” for subjects in childhood characterized by “retardation or physical defects interfering with school progress”; and of a lesser-known scholar, John E.W. Wallin. Both authors, indeed, worry themselves anxious to define clinical psychology, differentiating it from other medical and psychological branches; to establish which is the field of competence of the clinical psychologist; and to outline their training and specify the aims and contents of their intervention. Attention is then addressed to the relationship psychologists-psychiatrists at the time of its emergence, making specific reference to a document of the New York Psychiatrical Society – which represents one of the first attempts to exclude clinical psychologists from the field of mental health – and reporting also on the response to this position signed by Shepherd Franz. After an allusion to the Italian situation from the 1950s to today, the article concludes by emphasizing that at least some of the basic questions that clinical psychology had to deal with at its birth are still present, though filtered through the intense debate that has taken place over the years, and consequently supporting the importance of a historical component in the training of contemporary clinical psychologists.

L’articolo si occupa, nella sua prima parte, di un recente volume di storia della psicologia italiana, analizzandolo soprattutto sul piano delle scelte storiografiche compiute dai curatori. Tale disamina si evolve poi in un approccio nuovo, che mira a collocare la particolare ‘storia’ analizzata in un contesto piu` ampio, nel quale alcune specifiche ricostruzioni storiche vengono assunte come ‘oggetti’ del discorso storico, dando luogo a una comparazione sotto diversi profili. In questa prospettiva, il contributo si occupa in particolare delle diverse periodizzazioni della storia della psicologia nel nostro Paese. Affronta altresı` la questione, non meramente nominalistica, degli aggettivi (‘sperimentale’, ‘fisiologica’) che in determinate fasi si riteneva dovessero accompagnare il sostantivo ‘psicologia’, per essere successivamente abbandonati; e tratta il tema delle applicazioni, richiamandone le origini, evidenziandone i differenti significati e seguendone gli sviluppi nel corso del tempo.

The first part of the article deals with a recent book on the history of Italian psychology, analyzing especially the historiographical choices made by the editors. This analysis then evolves into an original approach, which aims to place the particular ‘history’ analyzed within a broader context in which some specific historical reconstructions are taken as ‘objects’ of the historical discourse, giving rise to a comparison in various respects. In this perspective, the contribution is particularly concerned with the different periodization of the history of psychology in Italy. It also addresses the question, not merely nominalistic, of the adjectives (experimental, physiological) that at certain stages were thought indicated to accompany the noun ‘psychology,’ prior to being subsequently abandoned; and also the theme of applications, recalling the origins, highlighting the different meanings, and following the developments in the course of time.

Il presente contributo, inserito in un volume dedicato alla figura e all’opera di Alfred Binet che contiene scritti di numerosi autori europei, nordamericani e sudamericani, si occupa di una significativa pagina degli sviluppi del testing in Italia.
In tale ambito, prende in esame l’importazione della Scala metrica dell’intelligenza costruita in Francia da Binet e Simon ed esplora diversi aspetti della ricezione di questo importante strumento nel nostro Paese.
Viene in particolare analizzato il lavoro di Aldo Graziani, uno degli autori italiani che in quegli anni si interessano alla prova binetiana e che la sottopongono ad un attento vaglio teorico-empirico.
La disamina compiuta consente di concludere che già sul finire dell’800 e nel primissimo scorcio del ‘900 c’erano in Italia alcuni, sia pur pochi, studiosi in grado sia di costruire propri strumenti di valutazione dell’intelligenza (come Ferrari e De Sanctis) sia di sottoporre a verifiche rigorose strumenti esteri, anche avviati ad una prestigiosa affermazione internazionale, come appunto la Scala di Binet e Simon.

ABSTRACT — According to the prevailing theory of scientific historiography, psychoanalysis met with significant difficulties in finding acceptance within the various areas of Italian culture. These difficulties are generally attributed to four main ‘sources:’’
the prevalent philosophical orientation of the period (that is to say, neo-Idealism); the ideology and political power at that time; the Catholic hierarchies; and the scientific world of the time, in particular that of psychiatry, but also that of psychology and medical psychotherapy.
Following the first significant writings (Baroncini, 1908; Modena, 1908-1909) that prompted the ‘‘importation’’ of psychoanalysis into Italy, Marco Levi Bianchini definitely proved to be one of the most convinced supporters of the new doctrine and one of its most active promoters. A psychiatrist of an organicistic matrix and Lombrosian orientation, Levi Bianchini, shortly after having ‘‘discovered’’ psychoanalysis, founded the journal «Archivio Generale di Neurologia, Psichiatria e Psicoanalisi» (published from 1920 to 1938); devoted himself to translating some works of Freud and other authors; established the International Psychoanalytic Library; took part in conferences on the subject; and in 1925 founded in Teramo the first Italian Psychoanalytic Society.
The present paper relates the essential aspects of some of these developments and events, while highlighting also several of the distinctive characteristics of Levi Bianchini’s approach to psychoanalysis. It also discusses themes concerning the relationship between the Italian and German culture in Levi Bianchini’s work – and the difficult cohabitation within it between different albeit bordering disciplines: psychiatry, neurology, and psychoanalysis. More specifically, in order to concretely explore the intercultural relations and the closely linked interdisciplinary relations, this paper presents some data regarding the numerous reviews written by Levi Bianchini, and his participation in international conferences.

RIASSUNTO — Secondo la tesi prevalente nella storiografia scientifica, la psicoanalisi ha incontrato rilevanti difficoltà nell’essere accolta nei diversi ambiti della cultura italiana; difficoltà che sono generalmente ascritte a quattro ‘fonti’ principali: l’indirizzo filosofico prevalente nel periodo (ovvero il neo-idealismo); l’ideologia e il potere politico del tempo; le gerarchie cattoliche; il mondo scientifico dell’epoca, in particolare quello psichiatrico,ma anche quello psicologico e medico-psicoterapeutico.
Dopo i primi scritti significativi di Baroncini e Modena (1908) che avviano la ‘importazione’ della psicoanalisi in Italia, è sicuramente Marco Levi Bianchini uno dei più convinti sostenitori della nuova dottrina e uno dei più attivi promotori della sua diffusione. Psichiatra di matrice organicistica e di orientamento lombrosiano, una volta ‘scoperta’ la psicoanalisi Levi Bianchini fonda la rivista «Archivio Generale di Neurologia, Psichiatria e Psicoanalisi» (pubblicata dal 1920 al 1938), si dedica con impegno alla traduzione di alcune opere di Freud e di altri autori, istituisce la Biblioteca Psicoanalitica Internazionale, partecipa ai congressi esteri della disciplina e fonda la prima Società Psicoanalitica Italiana a Teramo nel 1925.
Di tali vicende e di tali eventi il presente contributo riferisce gli aspetti essenziali, evidenziando anche alcune peculiari caratteristiche dell’approccio alla psicoanalisi del nostro
autore. Sono inoltre affrontati temi relativi al rapporto tra cultura italiana e tedesca nell’opera di Levi Bianchini e alla difficile coabitazione in essa tra differenti anche se limitrofe
discipline: psichiatria, neurologia, psicoanalisi. Più specificamente, per esplorare in concreto i rapporti interculturali e interdisciplinari, fra loro strettamente interconnessi, sono presentati alcuni dati relativi alle sue numerosissime recensioni e alla sua partecipazione ai congressi internazionali.

Riassunto –
Partendo da una analisi storiografica delle applicazioni psicologiche, il presente lavoro si focalizza sulle tematiche dell’orientamento, occupandosi di un celebre studioso italiano del primo Novecento: Sante De Sanctis. Questo studioso è stato infatti uno dei primi ad occuparsi della “psicologia della vocazione”, meglio codificata successivamente come attività di orientamento scolastico-professionale, seguendo una impostazione prevalentemente psicofisiologica nelle procedure di analisi e accertamento delle vocazioni individuali, ovvero delle attitudini e delle inclinazioni al lavoro.
L’articolo si sofferma quindi a considerare i compiti propri dello psico-fisiologo interessato al campo vocazionale, così come vengono descritti da De Sanctis, e ai metodi utilizzati per scoprire le incompatibilità e/o prevedere il successo nei diversi ruoli professionali delle persone. L’articolo infine mette in evidenza la sensibilità sociale di De Sanctis, descrivendo la procedura messa a punto da quest’ultimo per l’analisi delle attitudini professionali dei mutilati della Seconda guerra mondiale, al fine di garantirne il reinserimento lavorativo.

Parole chiave: Storia della Psicologia dell’Orientamento, Competenze degli Orientatori, De Sanctis


Abstract –
Starting with a historical analysis of the psychological applications, this paper address the issue of career counseling, dealing with a famous Italian scholar of the early twentieth century: Sante De Sanctis. This scholar was among the firsts who undertook advance studies in the "psychology of vocation", that was subsequently codified as school-career guidance, and followed a psychophysiological approach for  assessing individual vocations, their job attitudes and preferences.
The paper then describes the tasks and duties of the vocational psycho-physiologist, like so they were described by De Santics, and the methods used to discover the incompatibility of and/or to predict the success of people in their different professional roles. Lastly, this paper highlights De Sanctis’ social sensitivity, describing his procedure for the analysis of career skills of the mutilated soldiers during the World War II, in order to ensure their return to work.

Keywords: Vocational Psychology History, Career Counselor Competences, De Sanctis

The article first outlines an historiographical framework on the birth and first developments of testing in Italy, identifying among other two main roots, the anthropometric and the psychiatric one, which seems prevalent. After recalling the first Italian attempts to build tests for intelligence evaluation, such as those of Ferrari and De Sanctis, it is introduced the figure of Francesco Saffiotti, outlining a brief biography. Of this author is then examined the historiographical and methodological analysis of  international efforts to define and measure intelligence, but above all is described the accurate control work on the "intelligence metric Scale" of Binet and Simon. Follows the presentation of the articulated proposal for the revision and modification of the Scale made by the same Saffiotti in collaboration with Zaccaria Treves, which implies among other things the replacement of the term "mental age" with that of "mental grade" (or intellectual capacity). It is finally alluded to international assessments on this proposal, such as, for example, those of Decroly.

A previous examination of the sources of the Italian testing “movement” at his beginnings has allowed us to suppose the existence of an important “question of demarcation” inside psychology, between 1800 and 1900. Indeed, in most cases the use of a terminology which allows us to infer the durable absence of a clear distinction between the domains of experiment and those of test has been noticed.
The further research has made possible to find a rare American document from the beginning of the 20th century, analysed here, which gives a strong confirmation concerning the real subsistence of the supposed question.
The document also allows us to discover that the same question, at least in the United States, began at a certain point to be object of specific attention, with the participation of a great number of North American psychology scholars.

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury (1588-1679) is one of the most influential British philosophers of the seventeenth century. The paper reconstructs Hobbes's legal theory, focusing on his definition of law (civil law, as he calls it) found in Leviathan, XXVI, 3. The definition is only apparently simple, since it has been interpreted in different ways, especially with regard to the connections with natural law-and the Hobbesian assertion that civil law and natural law "contain each other". Moreover, the definition of civil law changes in the corresponding paragraph of the Latin version of 1668. What is the meaning of this change? What about the divisions of the law/divisio legis, which-as Hobbes emphasizes-appears in different forms in different writers? Finally, if a good law is "that which is needful, for the good of the people", what is it that dictates the paths to be followed by the sovereign representative, who is also the supreme legislator, when writing a new law? These are the main problems in Hobbes's legal thought that the paper will address.

The thesis developed in this article is that, concerning the elaboration of the notion of Commonweale / Commonwealth, the political thinkers of the English Renaissance were influenced by Plato's philosophy. In fact, if we read the Timaeus in connection to the Republic, we find the idea that political order must be placed within the wider cosmological order, and this mechanism is at the base of the conception of Commonweale / Commonwealth, as is shown especially by A Comparative Discourse of the Bodies Natural and Politique (1606) of Edward Forset.

Fear is a universal emotion, experienced by everybody. When it becomes collective and social, it can enter into the processes of political imagination, being used for political purposes. This article is a brief examination of the meanings and functions of fear(s) in Hobbes's thought. Some of his views may be 'historically' related to his own time, the Seventeenth Century, and others may be linked and confined to his own theory. However, his reflections on the importance of the perturbatio animi of fear for human psychology, and its impact on human interactions and collective behaviour, are still interesting for us today. The various meanings of fear highlighted by Hobbes (especially in his political works: Elements of Law, De cive, and Leviathan) are here synthetically reconstructed, with particular emphasis on fear as passion, expectation and will, and on fear in his various social aspects: mutual fear and fear of death, which give rise to the political community; fear of punishment and fear for the laws, which help to maintain the State and finally, fear of invisible power and timor Dei, from which religion originates, and the religious power that Hobbes wanted to be held by the State.

Contemporary Northern Ireland is a divided society "in transition", in the aftermath of a conflict that lasted thirty years. The school system is mainly separated, with a minority of "integrated schools" (63 to date), mixed schools with protestant and catholic pupilsonly seven pupils in one hundred attend this type of schools. In this context, teachers and educational researchers have developed some interesting inclusive practices. The article explores the most recent developments in the Northern Irish education system, highlighting the new vision of "shared education", with programmes of meeting and collaboration among different schools, which is-at least at a political level-supplanting the view of "integrated education". It also considers the programme for "Local and Global Citizenship" (LGC) in compulsory education, and its potential for the construction of lasting peace and social change, especially if connected to the teaching of philosophy and the use of philosophical enquiry in the classroom.

And in the same epistle, where I say of the civil philosophy: "It is no ancienter than my book De Cive"; these words are added: "I say it provoked, and that my detractors may see they lose their labour". But that which is truly said, and upon provocation, is not boasting but defence. A short sum of that book of mine, now publicly in French, done by a gentleman I never saw, carrieth the title of Ethics Demonstrated. The book itself translated into French, hath not only a great testimony from the translator Sorberius, but also from Gassendus, and Mersennus, who being both of the Roman religion had no cause to praise it, or the divines of England have no cause to find fault with it. ("Six Lessons", 1656, p. 333; the French In an age when political thinkers were writing books full of quotations of ancient and modern authors, Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury (1588-1679) developed a philosophical system which was based on scientific method rather than on the authority of books. He emphasized that the absurdities that philosophers fall into are actually due precisely to a lack of method and to the habit of quoting other thinkers as if the truth was to be found in their words. It is certainly not inappropriate to read what philosophers, historians, and poets wrote, whether for pure amusement or to find intellectual spurs useful for one's own research and speculation; but the written word should not be confused with the truth. In the investigation aimed at discovering the truth in political matters, the philosopher must use his own intellect, relying on the strength of reasoning. Thus, political philosophy becomes a science: the science of "consequences from the accidents of politic bodies". With his reflections on scientia civilis, Thomas Hobbes may be considered the inventor of political science.

In his masterpiece Leviathan (1651), Thomas Hobbes used a series of rhetorical devices in order to persuade the English reader of the truth of his political theories and of his civil science. The first rhetorical device is the engraved frontispiece of the book, where the sword of justice held by the sovereign is also a powerful sword of rhetoric (as shown by the table depicting Rhetoric in a Martianus Capella's manuscript owned by the Duke of Urbino). Moreover, Hobbes employs directly the metaphor of the state as a body politic and the analogy of the sovereign as the soul of the state and he also refers-though indirectly-to the Platonic analogy of the sovereign as physician of the state, evoking political thinkers, such as King James VI & I and Edward Forset.

After the so-called "Troubles", since 1998, Northern Ireland is experiencing a complicated but lasting peace process (or "conflict transformation" process). Despite this, the society remains divided along ethnopolitical and religious lines, with a polarized politics. The education system is mainly separated, with more than 90% of school population attending schools which are either Catholic or Protestant, and only 7% attending integrated schools of a mixed nature. The policy of "shared education" tries to connect different schools with several projects and activities. Following the integrated-shared education debate, the article reconstructs the education policy of the Northern Irish executive and of the Assembly of Northern Ireland under devolution, in the period 2013-2015.

This article highlights the key role played by human psychology and the passions in Hobbes's theoretical construction of politics as civil science. It analyses the connections with some stoic theories, in particular with the philosophy of Chrysippus. In fact, despite several differences, Hobbes was influenced by Stoic philosophy, especially with reference to the essential dynamics of the passions as "impulse" (hormé) and "repulsion" (aformé).

Alexander of Aphrodisias's Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics is an important testimony to understand Plato's philosophy. In fact, Alexander uses some lost Aristotelian books, especially a work On the Good, from which we learn that Plato's metaphysics is adialectical metaphysics, founded on an original opposition of two principles that shapes the whole reality-these principles being the One and the indefinite Dyad. Sensible things participate in ideas (they receive their being from ideas) and the intermediate mathematical entities lie between these two realities. However, ideas can be traced back to ideal numbers and the principles of ideal numbers are the One and the indefinite Dyad. Thus, these principles constitute their metaphysical foundation of ideas and, through the ideas, of the whole reality.

The thesis developed in this article is that, concerning the elaboration of the notion of Commonweale / Commonwealth, the political thinkers of the English Renaissance were influenced by Plato's philosophy. In fact, if we read the Timaeus in connection to the Republic, we find the idea that political order must be placed within the wider cosmological order, and this mechanism is at the base of the conception of Commonweale / Commonwealth, as is shown especially by A Comparative Discourse of the Bodies Natural and Politique (1606) of Edward Forset.