EFTA CONVERSATION: Systemic therapy on the set of dreams

With Massimo Schinco

A night without dreams is like a night without the Moon. Especially when the Moon is full, we enjoy its enticing light… a reflected light whose true splendor is hidden behind the darkness of the night. Authors with diverse backgrounds (e.g. Ernest Hartmann, Gregory Bateson, Montague Ullman) consider dream images as metaphors for feelings and emotions, valuable bridges on the border between the world of conscious purpose, where everything is perceived as fragmented and must be clearly distinguished, and that of wholeness, of which no map can be traced with certainty and completeness.

Our dreaming mind – or should we say our Soul? – performs an unceasing, often bizarre dance on that border; from it, re-emerge fascinating and luminous the mysteries of human subjectivity and responsibility: does the dance take place during the day after incessant nightly rehearsals, or do both, daytime and nighttime, form a magical show of which the eyes of our ordinary consciousness catch only glimpses and excerpts?

Approaching these mysteries with passion, curiosity and respect, we are able to redesign the practice of systemic psychotherapy in a colorful way, with particular reference to notions such as:

– setting; hypothesizing; designation processes in families and society. We will answer questions such as: who is the therapist? What our patients are responding to? How and what is the purpose of making interventions?

During the conversation, examples will be presented and discussed with the participants.

Massimo Schinco, Psychologist Psychotherapist, Senior Advisor and Faculty at the Centro Studi Eteropoiesi in Turin (Italy). He is Adjunct Professor at the School of Design of the Milan Politecnico (Italy). In 2012 – 2014 he was Co-Director with Luigi Boscolo of the Centro Milanese di Terapia della Famiglia. From 2011 to 2017 he served in the Board of Directors of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. He is the author of two books and numerous publications in the field of psychotherapy, creativity, and relationship between oneiric language and project language. As an amateur musician he plays violin in the Orchestra Sinfonica Amatoriale Italiana.

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