Antonino Ferro (Italian: [antoˈniːno ˈfɛrro]; born 2 March 1947) is an Italian psychoanalyst, who specializes in the work with children. He is strongly influenced by the British psychoanalyst W.R. Bion, and together with Giuseppe Civitarese (also a frequent collaborator) has been instrumental in the development of post-Bionian Field Theory (BFT).
Biography
Antonino Ferro works from Pavia near Milan, and is a member of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, of which he was the president from 2013 to 2017; he is also a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association.
Work
Overview
Ferro, alongside Giuseppe Civitarese, is primarily known for his development of the concept of the analytic field, for which he borrowed from the work of W.R. Bion and the Barangers. The analytic field is a response to the notion of the analytic dyad. Ferro further develops this concept by arguing that there aren't merely two persons involved in analysis. Rather, they are part of a larger, co-constructed field. He writes:
[...] field theory has a strong technical specificity of its own, in that it breaks for the first time with the idea of making the here and-now explicit in the session and of consequent transference interpretation. As a result, the relational aspect in effect becomes a stream flowing through the field; this river then widens out into a vast lake in which there is time for characters to emerge, to sink into the depths, to return to the background or to take the stage again.[1]
Ferro, trained as a Kleinian, would eventually move away from its focus on the penetrating analysis of phantasy-life, since he felt it would create a persecutory environment for the analysand. Building on Bion's concept of reverie, he emphasized the analyst mind's receptivity for dreams.[2] Ferro thus establishes an intersubjective positioning of the analyst and the analysand who together explore the various dreams that permeate the consulting room.
The field
The field is a concept taken from the work of the Barangers, two Argentinian psychoanalysts of French descent. The Barangers argued that the field "is a dynamic bi-personal configuration, including spatial, temporal and functional elements, resulting in an unconscious ‘bi-personal phantasy’."[3]
Affective hologram
Ferro conceives of the clinical encounter as a space for exploring narratives, dreams, and stories. As part of this explorative process he proposes something he refers to as affective hologram. In each story of the analysand there's various characters that appears as such a hologram, that is to say, an emotional constellation. Levine suggests that the Field is thus home to "giant weather map, with each statement implying the possible beginning formation of a new weather disturbance."[4]
Saturated and unsaturated Interpretations
Ferro draws a distinction between two types of interpretation: saturated and unsaturated ones, with each of them impacting the transference differently. If an interpretation is to saturated, then it establishes to definite a hold on the transference and narrows down the potential meanings.[5]
Reception
Ferro has been hailed by Howard Levine as one of Bion's "most fertile, productive and creative" descendants, "the embodiment of Bion's concept [of an analyst]". Levine goes on to praise Ferro's unique contributions to contemporary psychoanalysis, a vision Levine describes as "catalytic, transformational".[6] The jury of the Sigourney Award referred to him further as "a psychoanalytic leader, making major contributions to literature, lecturing, and teaching throughout the world and building bridges between psychoanalysis and the scientific and university communities."[7]
Awards
2007: Sigourney Award
Bibliography
Books
1992: La tecnica nella psicoanalisi infantile: il bambino e l'analista: dalla relazione al campo emotivo
1999: The Bi-Personal Field. Experiences in Child Analysis, Routledge
1996: Nella stanza d'analisi: emozioni, racconti, trasformazioni
2002: In the Analyst's Consulting Room
1999: La psicoanalisi come letteratura e terapia
2006: Psychoanalysis as Literature and Therapy
2000: Teoria e tecnica nella supervisione psicoanalitica: seminari clinici di San Paolo
2013: Supervision in Psychoanalysis: The Sao Paulo Seminars
2000: Prima altrove chi
2015: Reveries: An Unfettered Mind
2002: Fattori di malattia, fattori di guarigione : genesi della sofferenza e cura psicoanalitica
2005: Seeds of Illness, Seeds of Recovery: The Genesis of Suffering and the Role of Psychoanalysis
2003: Il lavoro clinico: nuovi seminari di San Paolo e Riberão Preto
2007: Evitare le emozioni, vivere le emozioni
2011: Avoiding Emotions, Living Emotions, Routledge
2008: Tecnica e creatività: il lavoro analitico
2009: Mind Works: Technique and Creativity in Psychoanalysis
2010: Tormenti di anime: passioni, sintomi, sogni
2015: Torments of the Soul: Passions, Symptoms, Dreams
2011: Psicoanalisi in giallo: l'analista come detective [Psychoanalysis in yellow: the analyst as detective] (with Giuseppe Civitarese, Maurizio Collovà, Giovanni Foresti, Fulvio Mazzacane, Elena Molinari, Pierluigi Politi)
2013: Psicoanalisi oggi: teoria e tecnica
2019: Psychoanalytic Practice Today: A Post-Bionian Introduction to Psychopathology, Affect and Emotions
2014: Le viscere della mente: sillabario emotivo e narrazioni
2019: Psychoanalysis and Dreams: Bion, the Field and the Viscera of the Mind
2015: Il campo analitico e le sue trasformazioni (with Giuseppe Civitarese)
2015: The Analytic Field and its Transformations
2017: Pensieri di uno psicoanalista irriverente: guida per analisti e pazienti curiosi (with Luca Nicoli)
2017: The New Analyst's Guide to the Galaxy: Questions about Contemporary Psychoanalysis
2018: Un invito alla psicoanalisi (with Giuseppe Civitarese)
2020: A Short Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Routledge
2020: Vitalità e gioco in psicoanalisi (with Giuseppe Civitarese)
2022: Playing and Vitality in Psychoanalysis, Routledge
Edited volumes
2007: Sognare l'analisi: sviluppi clinici del pensiero di Wilfred R. Bion (with others)
2011: Il campo analitico: un concetto clinico (with Roberto Basile)
Selected articles
2003: Marcella: the transition from explosive sensoriality to the ability to think. In: Psychoanalytic Quarterly LXXII, 183-200
References
^Ferro, Antonino; Basile, Roberto (2009). The Analytic Field. A Clinical Concept. London: Karnac. p. 2. ISBN978-1-85575-781-3.
^Palmer, Allen (2022). "Field Theory and child work. Playing on separate and overlapping Fields". In Levine, Howard B. (ed.). The Post-Bionian Field Theory of Antonino Ferro. Theoretical Analysis and Clinical Application. London And New York: Routledge. p. 109.
^Levine, Howard B. (2022). "The Transformational Vision of Antonino Ferro". In Levine, Howard B. (ed.). The Post-Bionian Field Theory of Antonino Ferro. Theoretical Analysis and Clinica Application. London and New York: Routledge. p. 2. ISBN978-0-367-76674-0.