Chiara Capri

Spirit of Our Time

The pandemic has led to crystallization of some psychic tendencies that already seemed to emerge in past years, in the child-adolescent group: the anesthetization of emotions, disorientation about them and social withdrawal. Parental figures do not always seem to be able to educate and intrigue their children about the meaning, relational value, and symbolic aspects of emotions. They are increasingly frightening: we try not to feel, or we do not understand what we feel. In contrast to a more and more dematerialized and virtual existence, the body asks for the bill, and unleashes its power, forcing to think and perceive. Here then is the epidemic of psychosomatic disorders, in which emotions seem to be forgotten or frozen; or again, the other side of the coin: emotional dysregulation, in which individuals lose themselves in a vortex of uncontrolled and uncontrollable emotions. The complexity of treating sick emotions underscores the need to better understand the indivisibility of body and mind, psyche and matter. Our study questions multiple disciplines, (developmental psychology, neuroscience, sociology) on the impact that the "spirit of our time" (liquid society, individualism, narcissism) and the pandemic have had on the shaping of emotions, in children and adolescents. Consequently, our look explores the possible early distortions of the development of the nervous system and personality, the change of the inner world and relational skills in developmental age. Through the analysis of some clinical cases, we ask ourselves on how myths and fairy tales can help in managing and decoding the evil of living today, giving the patient and the analyst new evolutionary and intervention strategies.

Bio

Chiara Capri is an Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist working in Rome. From December 2019 - March 2020 she was the psychiatrist for the European Project I.C.A.R.E.: “Integration and Community care for Asylum and Refugees in Emergency” c/o ASL Rome 1, SAMIFO, a Public Health Center for refugees and asylum seekers. From 2019, Chiara works as psychiatrist for the European project “Freedom of Choice”. This project explores personality traits, family structure, psychopathy traits, resilience of son of Mafia members in Calabria, Campania and Sicily. Currently she works at the Head of Early Interventions Center, West Area, Mental Health Department –Roma 1, as psychiatrist and psychoanalyst for adolescents, dealing with psychiatric drugs if needed.

Recent publications

• "Integrating psychophysiology within clinical practice: a pilot cross-sectional study on prodromal symptoms of Schizophrenia, emotion regulation and personality functioning", in Clinical Neuropsychiatry (2021) 18, 6, 334-338
• a chapter entitled (with Dr. Di Cesare): "Dysregulated and misunderstood new evolutionary and transdiagnostic perspectives between trauma, myth and resilience", for The Complexity of Trauma: Jungian and Psychoanalytic Approaches on the Treatment of Trauma and Affect-Toned Complexes, edited by Martin Schmidt and Luisa Zoppi, (in preparation for publication by Routledge)
• a chapter entitled (with Dr. Di Cesare and Dr. Brogna): “Asynchronus dancing of feeling-toned complexes in PTSD: the twilight of self-consciousness” for The Complexity of Trauma: Jungian and Psychoanalytic Approaches on the Treatment of Trauma and Affect-Toned Complexes, edited by Martin Schmidt and Luisa Zoppi, (in preparation for publication by Routledge)

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