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Condensing two issues of the Italian Rivista di Psicologia Analitica into one brief review is a difficult task. I will start by giving my overall view and comments on the content of the papers and the style of both volumes.
One is struck at once by a disappointing scarcity of clinical papers—or even papers which combine theoretical speculation with extracts from sessions. The majority of the papers deal with analysis of a literary nature—philosophical speculations influenced by, among others, Sartre, and other existentialist philosophers; scholarly and sophisticated studies on Greek mythology and alchemy; research on Italian folklore and fairy tales; and on the religious archetypes ‘external and outside’ as they can be ‘concretely’ seen in the cultural life or acknowledged as part of the collective unconscious.
All this, however interesting and relevant to the personal background and cultural training of ajungian analyst, seems in these issues of the Rivista to be presented ‘instead of the clinical material and not really linked to the hic et nunc of the daily analyst/patient relationship. Therefore, it does not help the reader to understand the way in which a session develops, nor does it present a methodology of work in the consulting room.
The style of most of the papers is scholarly and erudite, echoing the humanistic/classical trend in Italian tradition, and is devoid of any affective tone. One feels that such an approach is used as a ‘filtering and purifying mechanism’ through which all the messy chaos of ‘emotions’ is sieved and disposed of. There is hardly any mention of work in the transference-countertransference.
Volume 22/80 entitled Interpretare le Fiabe (Interpreting Fairy Tales) is composed of several articles analysing Italian fairy tales in the style of M.-L. von Franz and the Zurich school. As the editor points out, this issue has been motivated by a great revival of interest in Italian culture for fairy tales and folklore. Thus the best-known Italian