The history of the SPI is characterized by the great difficulties encountered at the beginning of its existence. Indeed, because of Fascism, the opposition of the Catholic Church, the idealistic philosophical current in universities and the organicist psychiatry in the medical field, the development of psychoanalysis was strongly opposed. At the international level, ignorance of other languages penalized the presence of Italian analysts abroad until the second half of the 1980s; on the other hand, it favoured a considerable number of translations and publications of books and articles from different parts of the world. The new generations of the SPI, from the 1990s onwards, gradually opened up to the international scene with considerable success both scientifically and institutionally, contributing significantly to the theoretical-clinical evolution and major reforms of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society. The article presents the Italian authors who are best known abroad, but who represent only a part of the rich scientific panorama of the IPS.