TY - JOUR A1 - Peciccia, Maurizio A1 - et al., T1 - Sense of self and psychosis, part 2: A single case study on amniotic therapy JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 31 (No. 4, 2022), pp. 237-248. N2 - Some people diagnosed with schizophrenia show an alteration of the sense of self. From a psychodynamic perspective, it has been hypothesized they have disorders of the integration of self/other identification/differentiation processes. From a neuroscientific view some with this diagnosis present dysfunctions in neural correlates of representation of self from other (the implicit sensorimotor-based bodily self), and self united with other. In >Sense of self and psychosis, part 1< we discussed scientific literature offering empirical evidence for the psychodynamic clinical observations that patients with diagnoses of psychoses didn’t receive adequate early infancy parental care and sufficient affective-sensorial/tactile interactions. Introducing parental care/cutaneous interactions seemed relevant in the analytic treatment of psychoses, as the pioneers of the psychoanalytic approach to psychosis suggested. From this theoretical basis we developed amniotic therapy, which reproduces the affective-tactile interactions of early infancy, insufficient in cases of psychosis, and aims at integrating the processes of differentiation and identification. We present a single case study of an experimental intervention plan including amniotic therapy. Results showed increases in interoception and global functioning, with significant decreases in positive symptoms suggesting that amniotic therapy contributes to increasing the protective strength of self-boundaries and integration of identification/differentiation processes. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Peciccia, Maurizio A1 - et al., T1 - Sense of self and psychosis, part 1: Identification, differentiation and the body; A theoretical basis for amniotic therapy JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 31 (No. 4, 2022), pp. 226-236. N2 - We will describe in two articles (>Sense of self and psychosis<, 1 and 2) the theoretical basis and the methodology of a new therapeutic group approach called amniotic therapy, which aims to improve the sense of self of psychotic patients. In this first article we explore the role of the surface of the body and its early sensorimotor interactions in the processes of self/other identification and differentiation. We propose that these processes have common origins, the body surface and its interactions, but different destinies, depending on where the body’s surface is projected. When it is projected intrapsychically we have differentiation, and when it is projected externally onto the body’s surface of the other, we have identification. Identification is a reciprocal process, in which the self’s and the other’s surfaces mutually contain each other and co-create a shared field. The neural correlates of identification and differentiation are discussed. The second article, which follows, describes amniotic therapy and explores a single case study. Y1 - 2022 ER -