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The chair, Dr. Nancy Joachim, introduced the presenters, Alvise Orlandini and Mario Mantero. Dr. Alvise Orlandini is in private practice in Milan, Italy.
He is also a consultant at a Rape Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Adjunct Professor in the Psychology faculty of the “Università degli Studi” of Milan Bicocca, and was trained at the “Cenro Italiano di Psicologia Analitica” (affiliated with the International Association of Analytical Psychology). Dr. Mario Mantero is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist. He is on the Board of Directors of ESDSS, The European Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress. He teaches forensic psychiatry in the residency program at the University of Milan.
Orlandini began the session by presenting his paper, “Repetition Compulsion in Rape Victims: Is the Analgesia Principle Beyond the Pleasure Principle? Clinical Implications.” He proposed a new idea that challenges the repetition compulsion as the mechanism explaining why patients repeat (specifically) painful sexual experiences. He suggested that an addiction is responsible for the repetition, not a compulsion. This addiction is created through secretion of endogenous opioids during abuse. Through this assertion, he disagreed with Freud's original theory regarding the repetition compulsion.
Freud considered the aim of the repetition compulsion to be an attempt to achieve mastery over the painful situation. However, Freud also thought there was a hidden cause for repetition of traumatic experiences—the death instinct. But Freud himself was not completely satisfied with his own conclusion.
Orlandini pointed out that numerous others before him have questioned the validity of the death extinct. He reviewed the literature. Wallace suggested that motivation for the theory of the death instinct was related to several losses in Freud's private life. Brenner was skeptical