ABSTRACT
Stefano Bolognini is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Bologna. He is past president of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and current president of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Dr Bolognini notes a universal contemporary shift away from tolerating dependency. Patients tend to stop analysis earlier, having experienced some improvement. Dr Bolognini’s inclination has been to accept the patient’s departure from treatment, yielding to the cultural realities, and hoping the patient might later return. Dr Bolognini makes an important point when he says, “There are some secret narcissistic investments in sadomasochistic, destructive organisations, which cannot be changed if one doesn’t analyse the pride, the admiration, that gives it cohesion.” Dr Bolognini has made a significant contribution with his conception of the interpsychic dimension, a place in between the intrapsychic and the interpersonal.
