Interview with Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PHD, July 2014

Caron Harrang: First, let me thank you for taking the time to conduct this interview which I hope will give participants coming to EBOR this fall a sense of who you are as an analyst, supervisor, instructor, and psychoanalytic author beyond what they might learn by reading your published papers.

You and I first corresponded a little more than a year ago after my organizing committee co-chair, Dana Blue, and I had selected the conference theme—From Reverie to Interpretation: Transforming Thought into the Action of Psychoanalysis—and we were trying to think of who might be as inspired as we are by the topic. We then read your paper, titled, “The Inaccessible Unconscious and Reverie as a Path of Figurability” (Civitarese, 2013) and it seemed to us like a natural fit for you to be one of our plenary presenters. Fortunately for us, you agreed and accepted our invitation right away.

Before I inquire further about reverie and how it informs your work, I'm wondering if you might tell us a little about where you live and work in Italy. I know Pavia is near Milan, but I don't think I'm alone in not knowing much more about that part of Italy. What kind of psychoanalytic community do you have there?

Giuseppe Civitarese: First, let me thank you, Caron, and the Seattle psychoanalytic community for inviting me to participate in this year's EBOR conference. It is a prestigious event and one that I am eager to experience and

contribute to in teaching one of the pre-conference Master Classes and in my plenary presentation on Saturday. Moreover, I love coming to the U.S. as it each time brings to mind memories of my paternal grandfather—whom