TY - JOUR A1 - Ventimiglia, Giancarlo T1 - On the development of depressive states from a psychodynamic viewpoint JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 24 (No. 1, 2016), pp. 19-30. N2 - The author analyzes the temporal dimension of depression by making reference to one of the clinical cases he treated and re-examining a clinical case analyzed by Edith Jacobson. According to the result of his observations, the developmental psychodynamics of a depressive state normally appears to take place in two distinct phases: a first narcissistic loss, which gives rise to an integrative conflict and to the formation of a certain identificatory structure, is later followed by a second narcissistic loss, which leads to the real depressive state. The two phases present a specific, intrinsic connection constituted by the implication of the same identificatory element of the self, recognition of which can favour a clinical work that more closely adheres to the deep dynamics of depression. Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ventimiglia, Giancarlo T1 - An investigation into the therapeutic dynamic of depressive states JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 21 (No. 2, 2012), pp. 082-093. N2 - Through a historical survey of the psychoanalytical reflection on depression the author shows how, after the first works by Freud and Abraham on the topic, it has developed (at least at an implicit level) according to two basic explanatory orientations. By separative orientation, the therapeutic evolution of depression aims at the substantial abandonment of the investment (already impaired by affective ambivalence) in certain objects, or their internal representatives/derivatives, having high narcissistic value. According to restorative orientation, the overcoming of depression is connected, instead, to the possibility of maintaining or re-establishing that investment, at least at a level of internal derivatives. By referring to one of his clinical treatments, the author underlines the greater significance of the separative orientation, together with the necessity of considering the restorative dimension only as a partial and secondary function of the therapeutic dynamic of depression. Y1 - 2012 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ventimiglia, Giancarlo T1 - A psychoanalytic interpretation of bipolar disorder JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 29 (No. 2, 2020), pp. 074-086. N2 - The author proposes viewing mania as a form of defense against the state of depression resulting from >narcissistic overidentification with the depressive object< (i.e., the object in relation to which the depressive state developed), rather than as a periodic rebellion against such an internalized object. An account of the analytic psychotherapy of a clinical case of bipolar depression serves to illustrate this point of view, linked to the author’s specific conception of the dynamics of depression. Y1 - 2020 ER -