Remembering, recollecting and recalling in psychoanalysis

The authors reflect on the role that the various kinds of memory have, such as implicit, sensorial, explicit and episodic, in the unconscious formation and development of a child’s mind. In particular, the authors highlight the main scientific contributions made by Adriano Gianotti on the early phases of normal and pathological child development. Moreover, they quote Giannotti’s work on the role of the mother and the parents’ relationship as a transformative process itself as well as that of non-verbal bodily memories into verbal memories. Following the thinking of Adriano Giannotti, the authors underline that a complex point of view of both the memory and the unconscious requires an integrated approach linking the neuroscientific and the psycholanalytical fields. Child, adolescent and adult psychoanalytical treatment has allowed Giannotti, as well as the authors, to study the way in which memories of the psychosomatic child-patient take shape. The dialectic game between perception, representation and memory, as the one between unconscious and repressed unconscious communication, is examined as well. Finally, the authors describe the way in which the analytic framework facilitates the acquisition of a mental space where the creation of a common language is the basis for a co-construction of the memory.

Keywords: Neuroscience, dynamic unconscious, unrepressed unconscious, remembering/ reminding, primary environment, body language

Anna Maria Lanza, Virginia Giannotti, Grazia Ciardulli, Teresa Iole Carratelli, Rimembrare, rammentare e ricordare in psicoanalisi. Il "prendere forma del ricordo" nei bambini con disturbi psicosomatici nel pensiero di Adriano Giannotti in "PSICOANALISI" 2/2010, pp 53-67, DOI: 10.3280/PSI2010-002006