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This past summer, the Academy held a most successful and enjoyable joint meeting with the Italian Psychoanalytic society, OPIFER, at the beautiful resort of Sestri Levante on the Mediterranean coast. Those attending the meeting were privileged to view a videotape in which Dr. Milton Berger interviewed Dr. Silvano Arieti on the psychotherapy of schizophrenia. We are fortunate to have Dr. Berger allow us to print a typescript of the interview which was prepared by Alex Ingram, in consultation with his father, Dr. Douglas Ingram. Although the interview was conducted in 1979, we believe it continues to be relevant to the current practice of psychiatry and would be of interest to our readers.
Dr. Berger: It is a real pleasure to have with me this afternoon, Dr. Silvano Arieti. He is a distinguished psychoanalyst and colleague, currently president of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, and editor of our Journal. He is also a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College, and perhaps more importantly than these attributes and his accomplishments, has been his long term interest in and study of, as well as work with, people who get labeled schizophrenic.
I would like to turn to you, Silvano, and hope that we can enjoy reviewing some of our mutual contacts—in the sense of the people we knew and who influenced us, including those patients. I understand you were really introduced to schizophrenia in the state hospital system here at Pilgrim State Hospital in New York State. Could you share a little of that?
Dr. Arieti: Yes, I started to work there in 1939 after I finished two years at the New York Psychiatric Institute where I did neuropathology.
(I was there) From '39 to '41. Then from '41 to the beginning of '46, I was in Pilgrim State Hospital. Now while I was there, I observed a certain phenomenon which appeared to me very, very interesting. I found out that some patients who had been in the hospital for many years and were in the so-called back-buildi