We invite you to a conversation with Italian analyst Antonino Pero. The conversation will discuss Pero's therapeutic technique, how he incorporates Bion's thinking in his work with patients, his conceptualization of the relational aspect of the therapeutic technique, and his positions on psychoanalysis today.

For about thirty years, Prue has shared with us his psychoanalytic insights, which are based on a special vision that combines two psychoanalytic traditions: the referential-intersubjective approach and the Bion-Klein approach.

This is not a simple approach given that the two traditions are often presented as contradictory. The influence of Bion on Perrault is clear. According to Perrault, the analyst's role is to transform beta elements into alpha particles through reveries, narratives, symbols, and dream thoughts.

Perrault's referential position draws from sources other than those familiar to us from the North American referential approach. The main source of influence is the field theory of Madeleine and Willy Beranger . Influence of Gestalt theory The Berangers developed the theory of the analytic situation as a field consisting of a whole that is more than the sum of the parts of the individual psychology of the therapist and the patient.

Prue faithfully maintains the Kleinian view that all communication between therapist and patient, even if it is based on reality, is related to the interpersonal field that is created between them and that this is the only knowledge available to the therapist for understanding and interpretation. However, Prue differs from Klein in his style of interpretation. Like Bion, he also believes that theory-saturated interpretation can have a traumatic effect, because the patient cannot think about it and derive from it.

Perrault is not a systematic, orderly writer. He should be read as one reads Bion: instead of trying to understand, allow the stories and ideas to generate thoughts and associations in the reader and make them the focus of interest.

Prue's background in child analysis influences his writing and teaching. He uses stories, drawings, cups, pencils, toys to illustrate his ideas. His language is figurative and metaphorical. For example, he uses food metaphors, usually Italian sauces, to explain the purpose of psychoanalytic therapy. The patient comes to therapy with many raw materials and a small frying pan. The analyst's role is to create a larger frying pan with him, so that he can contain the overflow of raw materials (elements of beta) and cook them into meaningful thoughts (elements of alpha).

From an interview with Pro:

"We are not rigid as in the past. The work is more elastic and creative. We are like artisans, like Renaissance workers. We are artists during the session; outside we are scientists. There is more creativity and more flexibility in contemporary work".

"My reading is more of a post-Bion, not a strict Kleinian, model. In the way we work with Bion, there is more sun, more affect, more reveries, more affective emotions, like the islands of Capri or Sicily, more flavor".

"In general, there is more pleasure in doing psychoanalysis today. Psychoanalysis should bring some joy and should not be a masochistic profession. Analysis is not easy, but one should enjoy the work with the patient. One must find something playful with a patient. One has to find something that makes analysis more alive and a transformative experience.."

Ferro, A. and Donna, L. (2005). Conversations with Clinicians. Fort Da , 11(1):92-98

Recommended books:

Seeds of illness, Seeds of Recovery - The New Library of Psychoanalysis

Avoiding Emotions, Living Emotions – The New Library of Psychoanalysis

The New Analyst's Guide to the Galaxy: Questions about Contemporary Psychoanalysis

Contemporary Bionian Theory and Technique in Psychoanalysis.