Some Treatments Carried Out

1. A Francis's dream and its interpretation (2004)

Dream

A few weeks after the deaths of his mother and father, occurred over eight months, Francis has the following dream. He, his brother, and sister are seated around a small table in the kitchen of the missing parents' house (the house where all three were born and raised). On the fourth chair rests a leather bag, half-open, full of papers and, perhaps, money, hit by a ray of sunlight that seeps through the French door that opens onto the balcony. Francis also remembers that, in the dream, the tiles that cover the walls of the kitchen are the plain blue majolica from many years ago (when the three of them were children and their parents were young) and not the current tiles, completely different in color and drawing.

Interpretation

Francis and his brothers, in the full elaboration of the serious double loss that struck them, find themselves taking stock of what has happened. The table around which they are seated symbolizes the love and solidarity that binds them, now more than ever. The bag "full of papers and, perhaps, money" resting on the fourth chair, "hit by a ray of sun", represents the precious human patrimony left to them by their parents. The setting is given by the most informal and familiar place, the kitchen: a kind of earthly paradise, an Eden that recalls the happy age of childhood, with the majolica of that time, with the color of that time, blue like the sky. The dream suggests that the bereavement proceeds in the awareness of the past happy family life that pain will never be able to make them forget. Francis accepts the interpretation and makes it his own.

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2. A non-existent case of linguistic deficiency (2015)

In the late summer of 2015, I am contacted by a couple of Latin American parents who are worried about their 7-year-old child, who is attending the second grade: some teachers have complained of "significant" problems in understanding and writing in Italian.

I am instructed by the couple to examine the child and to draw up a technical report on the situation. The following is an excerpt from that same report, delivered to Augusto's parents on 9 September 2015 and sent by them to the school.

"Augusto is a perfectly bilingual child, able to speak and understand both Italian and Spanish easily. Researchers and experts agree that early bilingualism is undoubtedly a positive experience for the child's cognitive, emotional, and social development. However, it is also clear that, in the first years of life, bilingualism imposes challenges unknown to monolingual children, especially as regards the accuracy of the lexicon, since the learning, consolidation, and use of words with the relative meanings must pass through the exploration of two different lexical evidence. In other words, the bilingual child often finds himself having to elaborate language (both in listening and in production) having two lexical repertoires to examine and not just one: this slows down his mental work and, at times, can confuse him. Compared to peers, all this can also entail - but always in an absolutely transitory way - some greater difficulty in the elaboration of abstract thought and arithmetic calculation (...). These are the prevailing reasons why, based on the most recent and updated psycho-pedagogical guidelines, it is strongly discouraged to induce the child to bilingualism from the very first months/years of life. (…) However, it should be remembered - and strongly reiterated - that these difficulties, in almost all cases, decline quickly and in general, under normal conditions, have already disappeared completely at the end of the first school cycle. It should also be added that cognitive, emotional, and social skills as well as the chances of social affirmation in adult life are generally more favorable for bilinguals. In conclusion: the child and then the bilingual child needs a slower and longer phase of linguistic takeoff than monolinguals, but the final results are equal or better (…). Based on the above, taking into account the previously mentioned particularity of the condition of bilingualism in which the communicative universe of the little Augustus is established, a general picture is normal (...): the possible elaboration slowness by the child is in fact, they are relevant only on performative and formal occasions (as happens at school, in fact). For the rest, Augusto demonstrates a lively and dynamic intelligence: he is capable of daydreaming, of fantasizing, of imagining himself in the future, of establishing good relationships with people and pets. He is particularly skilled in solitary and social play but also astute in competitive play. All this convinced me of the uselessness of integrating the survey by also subjecting it to an intelligence test."

Today, after three and a half years, Augusto successfully attends the fifth elementary class, speaks, reads, and writes perfectly in Italian and Spanish, is among the most popular and loved children of the school and, when he grows up, he wants to do the lawyer.

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3. A case of pediophobia - fear of dolls (2017)

Two short videos on the treatment of a 20-year-old woman suffering from pediophobia (phobia towards dolls) of medium severity.

The first video portrays a few moments of one of the first sessions. The girl, who has just started the treatment, at my invitation, manipulates a doll of the "Barbie" type: you can see the strong reluctance to touch the toy and the extreme attention in keeping that at a distance, using the entire length of the arm.

The second recording, shot after about two months of treatment, shows the final moments of the last session, at the end of which the young woman kisses a doll (which a few weeks earlier would have terrified her) and plays with it: she is perfectly healed.

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4. Berenice's dream and its interpretation (2019)

Dream

Berenice is in Chile. She remembers being confronted, at one point, by two zombie-like patients with parched and damaged skin, who chase her. She runs away but forgets to take the backpack with her money and documents inside. She then meets two guys she asks for help: one of them gives up helping her, the other does his utmost to give her a hand and points to the bus that will allow her to go back and, safely, retrieve her backpack.

Interpretation

The place where the dream is set (Chile), a country much loved by Berenice, represents the goal that she has set for two weeks: to defeat the tendency to compulsive drinking and the frequent consumption of soft drugs (with consequent highs that make her lose control of her behavior). The zombies represent the consequences of drug use (in addition, perhaps, to a reflection of the parental figures both afflicted by alcoholism and, the father, by the consumption of soft drugs). The escape reflects Berenice's attempt, actually in progress, to escape from such addictions. The forgotten backpack symbolizes his heritage, to be understood as personality and identity, which risks being lost forever. The two young people represent the people who, at this stage of her life, have been closest to her: her ex-boyfriend (who has just left her) and myself, who indicates the means (in the dream, the bus) to recover the backpack, that is, her self-control. The dream, the interpretation of which is accepted by Berenice, was made after she had not touched alcohol or drugs for almost two weeks.

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5. Lorenzo's dream and its interpretation (2020)

Dream

After months of anguish due to the death of his mother, on the very night of the anniversary of her death, the young Lorenzo sleeps in the house inherited from her. He is not alone, since Priscilla sleeps with him: she has been close to him in the difficulties of mourning, and with her, for some months, he is having a satisfying relationship. What Lorenzo remembers from the dream is his mother: she has an unusual hairstyle, wears a new dress, and smiles, with the large, transparent, and bright window behind her. Lorenzo also feels the positive presence of people who may be whispering. All around, light and colors.

Interpretation

Everything is going in a normal and natural way. Serenity (the light that shines through the window and the colors of the environment) is regaining positions in Lorenzo's emotional universe, too long shaken and agitated by difficult mourning. In particular, the appearance of the sweet maternal ghost, with an unusual hairstyle, with a new dress and surrounded by mysterious but benignant presences, symbolizes the approval that, from a better and happy world, the lady would have expressed for her son's actions. Lorenzo accepts the interpretation and recognizes himself in it.

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6. Isabel's dream and its interpretation (2020)

Dream

Isabel, in the dream she had the night before the day she talks to me about it, is at home and she sees herself crying at the bedside of her child who died at 12! She is desperate, the pain and anguish are unbearable but she wakes up: it was just a dream, a nightmare.

Interpretation

Isabel and her husband have been in crisis for several months, but for some time he has been behaving rather strange and suspicious: he does not come back home to sleep; he emptied his checking account; he asks the child questions about how the child himself would react if his father and he own leave away without his mother. This has led Isabel to think that her husband may want to take the baby away from her and leave home. That said, the day before the night of the nightmare, Isabel had a domestic accident: slipping badly in the bathroom, she reported what would later be diagnosed as a painful even if not very serious micro-fracture in her right hand. Leaving the bathroom for the pain (and worried about the damage whose gravity was not yet definable at the moment) she has a heavy crying, immediately imitated by the son who, frightened and anguished, seeing his mother so suffering, hugs her tightly to console.

Isabel's nightmare reflects the terror she has of losing her son (if her husband's "kidnapping intentions" were accomplished): if she no longer had her child with her, she would suffer as if it were real mourning! Despite months and months of suspicion and fear, Isabel has a bad dream only the night after the accident because she was struck by the anguish felt by her son and exploded in total harmony with her physical pain. Those two so empathic souls, crying together, had proved to be inseparable: Isabel would never, ever endure the pain of a traumatic separation and the nightmare has confirmed it! Isabel accepts the interpretation of her dream.

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7. Andrew and his anxiety attacks (2021)

Andrew is a young homosexual who works as a hairdresser in central San Francisco.

He complains of some disorders frankly identifiable as agoraphobic type disorders. In the differential diagnosis, I also can detect states of anxiety, moments of stress and, according to the patient, moments of real panic even if the description of these moments (not revealing a real feeling of imminent death) makes me rule out that these are proper panic attacks.

The patient shows an extraordinary attachment to the family and particularly to his mother with whom he has a tender, deep, authentic relationship.

Furthermore, I hypothesize that the onset of some morbid phenomena may coincide with some moments in which Andrew, when he still was a very young child, feared he would have to separate from his mother and this caused him a profound disquiet. My idea is that his fear was not so much that of being abandoned by his mother and, therefore, of not being able to be defended and protected by her anymore as, vice versa, the fear of not being able to defend and protect his mother anymore. In other words, a protective instinct with inverted roles, a phenomenon in which it is the child who protects the mother and not the reverse. Then, when the son, for some reason, feels that by detaching himself from his mother he will no longer be able to protect her, he goes into crisis. It is no coincidence that the disturbances disappear in early summer, coinciding with the school holidays. His mother has been suffering for many years from anxiety and above all from depressive states and is being treated to deal with these problems. She and his sister have always accepted Andrea's homosexuality right from the start, while the father had an impact that was difficult to process, but then he overcame it, according to the boy, in a brilliant way.

We agree that the therapy will only have to partially take into account the genesis of the disorder and its etiology but, above all, it will have to focus on a progressive desensitization strategy with particular reference to the increasing familiarity that the patient will have to conquer with it, beginning right from the journey he travels every day to go to work. Through a program, which will be elaborated in detail later, we will try to inhibit the avoidance strategies currently implemented by the patient and vice versa we will try, progressively, to make him activate paths to reach his workplace that take into account the logical itinerary and not the most reassuring one.

Procedure for facing anxiety attacks.

1. Early recognition of preliminary signs;

2. Comfortable seating to set up self-treatment;

3. Vocalized verbal accompaniment to prepare the defense from the attack;

4. Diaphragmatic breathing without hyperventilation;

5. Concentration on the first object at hand.

Meditation exercises with a rejection of intrusive thoughts: 5 minutes in the morning upon awakening; 5 minutes in the evening before falling asleep.

A couple of months later every problem would be solved.