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Though this be madness, there's method in it.
It is difficult to conceive of an analysis having a satisfactory outcome without the analysand's becoming reconciled to, or at one with, himself.
In a session, do not fear if the patient sees you as mad; he has the right to see you as he may. Do not fear if you see yourself as mad; in some area you are like him or her. What you saw as mad in the patient until now will not be seen as such anymore - you will find a kernel of truth.
Civitarese's deep interest in the work of Bion can be seen in all of his own contributions and in the title of his most recent book The necessary dream (Civitarese, 2014a), probably inspired by Bion's suggestion: “I suspect that Freud's displacement etc. is relevant; he took up only the negative attitude, dreams as ‘concealing’ something, not the way in which the necessary dream is constructed” (Bion, 1992 [1959b], p. 33; bold by Bion). In Civitarese's paper ‘Transformations in hallucinosis and the receptivity of the analyst’ there emerges an experienced analyst and sophisticated if disquieted theoretician. Civitarese courageously dwells on a still controversial issue in psychoanalysis, leaning on his own ideas, some of them novel, and on observations as well as ideas put forward by Joan and Neville Symington, Ogden, Meltzer, Lopez-Corvo, Madeleine and Willy Baranger, and Sandler - but mainly by Antonino Ferro.