| Rivista | La Rivista di Psicoanalisi |
| Fascicolo | The Italian Psychoanalytic Annual 2025/19 |
| Titolo | Depressive anxiety and perversions of relatedness: A possible reparation |
| Autore | Valeria Pezzani |
| Editore | Raffaello Cortina Editore |
| Formato |
 Articolo |
Pdf
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| Pagine | |
| Lingua | inglese |
| Online da | 10-2026 |
The article reflects on distortions of relatedness in perverse pathology. After a historical overview of the main psychoanalytic approaches to the theory of perversion, the paper follows the significant stages of an analytic process in order to explore the patient’s transformations and the transference-countertransference dynamics involved. Particular attention is paid to the patient’s gradual shift from a relational modality based on the use of the object toward an increasing awareness of both his own suffering and that of others, ultimately leading to the recognition of his own fragility and of the existence of an object separate from himself, and therefore worthy of respect. The patient appears to have gained partial access to depressive anxiety through the recognition of his own limits, aggression, and underlying destructiveness, gradually moving beyond the paranoid-schizoid position and the position of the idolized child. The paper also emphasizes the central role played by the analyst’s elaboration of countertransference and of the empathic drifts emerging within the analytic relationship in facilitating the transformative process.
KEY WORDS: Perversions, object relations, sense of Self, empathy, depressive anxiety, idolized child.
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