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Arnaldo Novelletto (1989) in presenting the exhibition Italy in Psychoanalysis at the 36th IPA Rome congress, wrote, “Italy was present in psychoanalysis long before psychoanalysis was present in Italy” (p. 67). The important role played by Freud's imaginary Italy in his self-analysis is well documented in his letters to Fliess and has recently been dealt with in Graziella Magherini's (1989) La Sindrome di Stendhal—a book that deserves to be translated
into English. Italy was the country Freud preferred for both travel and vacation (Toegel, 1989; Conci, 1991), besides being the source of inspiration for fascinating works such as the ones on Jensen's Gradiva, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo's Moses. After an initial timid theoretical reception around 1910 (well documented by David, 1966), it was only through the pioneering work of the Viennese-trained Edoardo Weiss (1889-1970) that a real psychoanalytic practice could start in the 1920s, under Freud's direct supervision (Weiss, 1970). Officially reorganized in 1946 by Nicola Perrotti (1897-1970), Cesare Musatti (1897-1989) (Steiner & Funari, 1989), and Emilio Servadio (1904-), the Italian Psychoanalytical Society (SPI) did not really gain a large membership until after the 1969 Rome congress (Trasforini, 1991). As it also happened in France (Turkle, 1978), it was only after the 1968 student upheavals that our culture eventually became receptive to psychoanalysis on a large scale (Migone, 1989; Conci, in press). In connection with the new developments taking place in Italian psychiatry, the American interpersonal tradition (e.g. the works of Sullivan, Fromm-Reichmann, and Arieti) could start being introduced (Bacciagaluppi, 1989) and contribute to the creation of a solid psychotherapeutic culture (Benedetti, 1987). It was in this atmosphere, “backed by an amazing wealth of translations provided by some outstanding publishing houses” (Limentani, 1989, p. 26), that Eugenio Gaddini (, Limentani, 1986) and Franco For