Ci sono due tipi di trauma, Big-T e Small-T.
Come ha spiegato la psicologa e psicoterapeuta Silvia Pepe, nel corso del quinto incontro del corso di formazione "Volunteers and families online for mental health", al primo appartengono eventi di grande portata, anche collettiva, che minacciano l’integrità fisica propria o delle persone care, come abusi, incidenti gravi, disastri naturali. Al secondo, si riferiscono esperienze ed eventi di vita emotivamente stressanti che lasciano segni indelebili sul senso di sicurezza e di fiducia.
La ricerca scientifica ha dimostrato che i due tipi di trauma, seppure molto differenti, dal punto di vista emotivo determinano una reazione pressoché analoga e gli stessi sintomi: disturbi del sonno, difficoltà di concentrazione e di memoria, mancanza di energia, irritabilità, chiusura.
Il COVID-19 è al contempo un trauma Big-T e Small-T, individuale e collettivo. Separa un prima da un dopo: è impensabile immaginare che la vita possa restare la stessa. Non c‘è difesa possibile. Ci sentiamo sovrastati da un evento più grande di noi. Siamo passati da una situazione di potenza a una di impotenza.
In una guerra si conosce il nemico, con il virus il nemico è sconosciuto, per difenderci c’è solo il confinamento, la rinuncia alla socialità, al rapporto fisico con gli altri. La pandemia ha cancellato persino i rituali che accompagnano il lutto e ne attutiscono il dolore.
In questo quadro, più della paura che si può affrontare e vincere, ci assale l’angoscia che viaggia nel mondo dell’ignoto.
Come reagire?
Anche isolati nel lockdown possiamo sperimentare la libertà in modo diverso: con la solidarietà e la connessione con l’altro attraverso strumenti nuovi che ci consentano di superare i limiti imposti a livello individuale e collettivo.
Il trauma porta con sé una “forza misteriosa”. Esistono crescite post traumatiche, pericoli e rotture che diventano opportunità, resilienze. Il gruppo è un potente sistema, bisogna ripartire dalle relazioni. Per combattere contro l’angoscia del futuro restiamo nel “qui e ora”, seguendo regole semplici come mangiare e dormire in modo regolare, parlare con la famiglia e gli amici, fare esercizio fisico e attività che aiutano a rilassarsi, ascoltare musica, leggere. E trovare il modo di aiutare gli altri in una nuova fratellanza.
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“La resilienza come strumento di salute mentale” è il titolo del quarto appuntamento del corso di formazione "Volunteers and families online for mental health", relatore lo psichiatra José Mannu.
La "resilienza" non è un termine che nasce in ambito psichiatrico - ha spiegato Mannu nel corso del suo recente intervento al Màt Modena, Settimana della Salute Mentale - ma proviene dall’ingegneria, e indica la capacità di un materiale di assorbire energia elasticamente, quando sottoposto a un carico o a un urto, prima di giungere a rottura.
Per comprendere l’utilizzo della parola resilienza nell’ambito della salute mentale, è opportuno ripercorrere la storia della psichiatria. Nel ‘700 Philippe Pinel suggerisce che i folli siano considerati persone e che la follia sia solo follia parziale. Il folle ha dunque una parte sana, che deve essere liberata dalla malattia, attraverso il “trattamento morale”. Cioè sviluppare la parte sana attraverso l’educazione, la persuasione e la disciplina dell’individuo. Nascono così i manicomi.
Durante la seconda Guerra Mondiale, Wilfred Bion suggerisce di allearsi con la parte sana per combattere insieme quella malata. Questa alleanza avviene nella comunità, un luogo dove la follia potesse esprimersi liberamente, e non come in manicomio.
Con l'esperimento di comunità realizzato a Gorizia, negli anni ’60 Franco Basaglia sostiene che l'esistenza stessa di un luogo in cui la follia possa esprimersi causa una cronicizzazione della malattia. Per questo, secondo Basaglia, la cura non può avvenire in un luogo, ma nel territorio dove una persona vive. Si tratta di un cambiamento culturale nella psichiatria, una vera rivoluzione.
All’alba degli anni 2000, la Teoria della Capacità impone una nuova visione della “parte sana”, che si esprime attraverso la capacità e il funzionamento della persona. Il benessere individuale nasce dalla relazione. Diventa dunque necessario vedere dove le persone sono in grado di agire, dove “funzionano”, cioè la reale opportunità di intraprendere un'attività e la reale voglia di essere ciò che si vuole essere.
Tornando alla resilienza, possiamo dire che questa esplora i modi in cui gestire una natura (o un tessuto economico/sociale) che non è in equilibrio. Secondo la definizione di Michael Ungar, “Più che un set di caratteristiche individuali, sono le strutture intorno alla persona, i servizi che la persona riceve, il modo in cui è strutturata la sanità, tutti questi si combinano con le caratteristiche della persona che permettono di far fronte alle avversità che affrontano e trovare strade verso la resilienza”.
Solo chi ha la memoria è in grado di vivere nella fragilità del tempo presente. Lo ha spiegato il filosofo Pierangelo Di Vittorio, sabato 24 ottobre, durante il terzo incontro del corso di formazione “Volunteers and families online for mental health”, dal titolo “Le relazioni sociali, un nuovo paradigma”, in un excursus tra arte, letteratura, filosofia e cinema.
C’è un valore d’uso della Storia: il presente deve rileggere costantemente il passato, farlo a pezzi per riattualizzarlo. Il monumento è il grado zero del valore d’uso, non serve alla vita, ha affermato Di Vittorio sulla scorta di Nietzsche. Solo smontando e rimontando il passato può nascere qualcosa di nuovo.
Ma cosa fonda il legame sociale nel corso della Storia? Secondo una certa cultura, l’uomo agisce razionalmente perseguendo il proprio utile, e la coesione sociale nascerebbe dal gioco regolato degli interessi individuali.
E se invece fosse un “trauma”, personale o collettivo, a rendere possibile un legame fra gli uomini? Pensiamo a Edipo che, nel cercare di rispondere alla domanda “da dove vengo? chi sono?”, scopre l’orrore della propria storia. La democrazia ateniese rifletteva su se stessa attraverso le tragedie, ed è forse è sempre intorno a un trauma che una comunità si raccoglie.
Sul tema della “follia” c’è stata, da un lato una caduta di interesse sociale che ha riportato ai margini i malati mentali, mentre dall’altro, nel delirio capitalista in cui siamo presi – secondo Pierangelo Di Vittorio –, la follia è “messa al lavoro”: lo scatenamento pulsionale (droghe, eccessi di ogni genere, violenza) diventa la leva per incrementare la produzione, per produrre ricchezza.
C’è bisogno che la follia torni a risuonare nella società. La società deve riconoscere, non solo che la follia le appartiene, ma anche che svolge un “servizio pubblico”: ritrovando le tracce del legame sociale lacerato e perduto, può offrire la possibilità di un vivere comune più ricco e fecondo.
Come dimostra l’esperienza di Basaglia, tuttavia, per creare un legame sociale bisogna prima riconoscere l’“altro” come un avversario legittimo. Dinanzi agli internati di Gorizia, che contestavano il riformismo della comunità terapeutica, il gesto umanitario di Basaglia ha dovuto farsi politico, prima accogliendo la loro contestazione, poi diventando un loro alleato nella lotta per il superamento del manicomio.
È da questo esempio che si può ricominciare.
La biografia “Franco Basaglia”, di Mario Colucci e Pierangelo Di Vittorio
Before analyzing social relations, it is good to deal with the new paradigm. But how should this “new” be constructed? It is the question from which the philosopher will start Pierangelo Di Vittorio, in the third appointment of the training course “Volunteers and families online for mental health”, scheduled for Saturday 24 October, at the Di Liegro Foundation.
The answer - according to Di Vittorio - is in putting together pieces of the past, in the form of cultural archives, and pieces of the present, that is, diagnoses on the problems and tensions that run through current affairs. A type of mosaic, made up of pieces on which Di Vittorio has been working for some time, collected starting from the question of social relations.
And it is like in a mosaic that the themes of the meeting will be composed, between the philosopher Walter Benjamin and the present which has “the power of the keys over the rooms of the past” and the writer and philosopher Michel Foucault, who has dealt with madness since his doctoral thesis "History of madness in the classical age" and invited us to question ourselves precisely on madness, because "from man to true man, the road passes through the mad man" .
During the meeting we will inevitably talk about Franco Basaglia (with whom Pierangelo Di Vittorio came into indirect contact when after graduating he carried out his civil service at the Mental Health Department of Trieste) and of his decision to undertake the path of invention and caring for the social bond. Read about it in this regard monograph "Franco Basaglia", written with Mario Colucci, released in 2001 and recently re-edited.
“Began in the name of a love for knowledge, in the name of philosophy, Basaglia's experience developed as a loving relationship towards patients, to finally be realized in the construction of another way of living together. A more just and fruitful common life – Di Vittorio wrote in the magazine “Either/Or” in 2017 – for which Italian society and the entire world still bear the responsibility and active hope”.
How many times do we hear a banal "How are you?", often followed by an equally banal "fine, thanks"? Countless times. In reality, in this question there is a relationship proposal behind which there can be many nuances that lead to entering into a relationship with another person. And if, for example, that other person is a homeless patient who is suffering the consequences of the lockdown on the street and has lost the little relational openness that he had built up to the point of completely neglecting his state of health and his discomfort, that 'how are you' (or even a 'how are you' or a 'what's up') can become the first step towards approaching healthcare facilities.
This is how it began How are you? Distancing, isolation and loneliness, the second meeting of training course "Volunteers and families online for mental health" of the Di Liegro Foundation. Speaker, Dr. Massimiliano Aragona, psychiatrist, psychotherapist and philosopher, coordinator of the SIMM, “Mental Health and Immigration” group of the Italian Society of Migration Medicine.
Inevitably, COVID-19 was at the center of his speech and of the interventions of the participants in person and online, volunteers and people active in the third sector.
Even inside homes, the total lockdown represented a shock, the change in our lifestyle that did not conceive of social distancing, the ban on physical relationships. Many have suffered profoundly, but there have been many who have appreciated some aspects: the cleaner cities and air, the canceled traffic, the respected queues, the empty cinemas.
Confirm that in every situation – even in what 60 million Italians are experiencing at the same time, each in their own way – there are resilience factors, unexpected opportunities which, if taken from the right side, can lead to positive developments. For example, forcing us to ask ourselves the question: "What is really important in life?".
But ultimately, the lockdown improved things in the communities, family first and foremost, where things were going well and worsened in those where they were going badly.
Surprises came from several people suffering from particular mental disorders, who enjoyed sharing the rules with everyone else.
During the crisis, the Third Sector continued to be present, demonstrating how important it is in society.
The Public Service as a whole has had many problems. The pandemic was a stress test for a system that showed its flaws. Health facilities responsible for the treatment of mental illnesses closed their doors in the face of the threat of the virus: patients who were outside were not able to enter, those who were inside were not able to leave, remaining closed together with the health workers for a month/a month and a half , away from family, often without explanations about what was happening. Some coped well, others didn't.
And now there is the second wave. For better or worse we were all waiting for it and we knew we had to prepare, but here we are all still in the same boat with anxiety rising.
It's a different phase. There probably won't be a second total lockdown, lethal for the economy, but there is a lack of clear indications and rules for everyone and each of us will have the task and burden of seeking the right behaviors.
On 21 September in Modena, as part of Màt, Mental Health Week, the Di Liegro Foundation is organizing the seminar entitled “Empathy and resilience in mental health”, rapporteur the psychiatrist José Mannu.
The project will be presented during the seminar “Volunteers and families networking for mental health” of the Di Liegro Foundation, a set of activities that intend to create and develop a support network for people with mental health problems and their families, with the aim of promoting their social inclusion, allowing the implementation of a recovery path and spreading greater knowledge and awareness of ways to deal with mental distress.
The Màt-Mental Health Week is the event promoted by the Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addictions of the Modena AUSL. Seven days of debates, conferences, artistic and cultural events open to all citizens, located in different areas of Modena and the province, with the aim of raising awareness in the area on mental health issues and implementing the fight against the prejudice and stigma that burden on those suffering from mental distress.
The seminar “Empathy and resilience in Mental Health” will be broadcast in live streaming on the Màt website and on the channels Facebook And YouTube of the event, starting from 3pm on Wednesday 21 October.
We are all in a community when we build relationships in the same space and for a certain period of time. We should also start from the concept of community when talking about volunteering and the consequences of the pandemic.
This is the theme of the first meeting of the training course “Volunteers and families online for mental health”, entitled "Volunteering and community, starting again from the crisis", scheduled for Saturday 3 October 2020, at 10.30 am, with Andrea Volterrani, sociologist, researcher and professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
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Professor Volterrani, who deals with research, training and consultancy on social policies, the third sector, social communication, evaluation of the added social value and impact of the third sector, new forms of mutuality and subsidiarity and resilient communities, is the author of numerous publications, including (with Paola Tola and Andrea Bilotti) The taste of volunteering. For Volterrani, volunteering must be pleasure and not duty or suffering, rather a distinctive work and not the gratification of having given help.
For this, a change of mentality is necessary, trying to grow social capital within a community, emancipate it and, only later, seek financial support for the projects. In short, a reversal of common practice, in which the community should first be emancipated and then the services built, providing it with the necessary tools.
During the meeting "Volunteering and community, starting again from the crisis", Andrea Volterrani will also address the topic of the use of digital media to increase inclusion in communities. We cannot ignore technological tools, but we can use them as opposed to the usual individualization, for achieve social inclusion and imagine alternative spaces for intelligent and conscious digital communities.
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Photo by God Hasbi Saniskoro from Pexels.
Everything is ready for the award ceremony of the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Poetry Prize. The event is scheduled for Saturday 18 September, at 3 pm, in the Throne Room of Palazzo Passarini Falletti in Rome.
The Passarini Falletti palace it is a noble palace located in via Panisperna 207, in the historic center of the capital, precisely in the Monti district. It was built in the first half of the eighteenth century, in place of a previous architectural settlement from the seventeenth century. The Throne Room is a bright environment enriched by Murano chandeliers and a ceiling with wooden coffers.
On this occasion, "Flights of butterflies and bumblebees" will be available, the anthology of the XI edition of the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Poetry Prize, published by “Terra d'ulivi”, with the authors, texts and motivations of the winning works.
Despite the lockdown, which forced the date of the award ceremony of the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Poetry Prize to be moved to September, the 2020 edition recorded "such a large number of works of high literary value", commented the president of the Award, Renato Fiorito. "Despite the difficult conditions - recalled Fiorito - poetry always mysteriously finds its ways to invade the lives of many".
To encourage participation, also due to social distancing regulations, the event will be broadcast live on the Prize Facebook page.
The list of winners of the XI edition of the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Poetry Prize
Let's keep the memory of Luigi Di Liegro alive
It's only love if you know how to give love. That Do love which is action, which manifests itself in care for yourself and others. By participating in the raffle you will take care of people who suffer from mental distress, supporting inclusion projects and the concrete battle against stigma that the Foundation has been carrying out for more than twenty years. Furthermore, you will participate in the drawing of wellness rewards carefully chosen for you:
The drawing of the winning tickets will be held during The music that changes everything next February 14th: an evening of art and solidarity in the prestigious setting of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory (via dei Greci, 18 - Rome). Entry to Valentine's Day includes a raffle ticket.
RAFFA TICKETS
To purchase raffle tickets write to us at segreteria@fondazionediliegro.it, call us on 06 6792669 or stop by the Foundation in via Ostiense 106 - Rome
The Foundation is pleased to present the concert of Pinched Brigands, the musical group of our art therapy and socialization laboratory, in the prestigious setting of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory (via dei Greci, 18 - Rome).
THE Briganti Pizzicati will perform on February 14th at 7.00 pm. The choice of the date is not random, but evocative. The theme of the evening will be love, that love that manifests itself in care for yourself and others; care which means action, towards one's own (and others') psychosocial well-being.
There the true protagonist of the evening will be art and its material and immaterial value of care and inclusion. In addition to the music of Briganti Pizzicati, in collaboration with Music on the Way, there will be poetic and theatrical incursions, the result of the work carried out in other art therapy laboratories, with a view to a creative collaboration that highlights their technical rehabilitative value. There will also be the extraordinary performance by a high-level student of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory.
BOOK YOUR PLACE
Entrance to There music that changes everything with donation: donate here.
With entry to the concert you will be entitled to a ticket from us Solidarity raffle: you will then be able to participate in the draw Wellbeing rewards chosen for you, discover them here; but most of all, you will take care of people who suffer from mental distress, supporting inclusion projects and the concrete battle against stigma which the Foundation has been carrying out for more than twenty years.
To book your ticket: write to us segreteria@fondazionediliegro.it, call us at 06 6792669 or do it online by clicking here.
THE PROGRAM
The musical evening will be hosted by Adriana PannitterI, a TG1 journalist who is very sensitive and attentive to the topic of mental health. The direction will be by Franco Pennacchi.
