Remembering Marcella Balconi / Introductory note / Marcella Balconi: The passionate investment of a lifetime

Journal title PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE
Author/s Alberto Merini, Paolo Migone, Giorgio Meneguz, Giancarlo Grasso, Enrica Crivelli
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/1
Language Italian Pages 14 P. 87-100 File size 309 KB
DOI 10.3280/PU2026-001005
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After an Introductory note by Giorgio Meneguz, the paper by Giancarlo Grasso and Enrica Crivelli “Marcella Balconi: The passionate investment of a lifetime”, originally published in issue no. 55/2007 of the journal Quaderni di Psicoterapia Infantile, is reprinted. Marcella Balconi (1919-1999) successfully integrated clinical child and adolescence psychoanalysis with social commitment, deeply convinced that a child’s development is inseparable from the political and economic context. Exposed to fascist violence at an early age, her life was shaped by left-wing political consciousness: she actively participated in the Resistance and, in the postwar period, played a crucial role in the ONMI (National Maternity and Childhood Organization) for post-war assistance to mothers and orphans. Her psychoanalytic training, undertaken after 1948, was international, beginning with her analysis in Lausanne with Nissim Beno and a crucial encounter with Serge Lebovici. Upon returning to Italy, she founded the first Child Neuropsychiatry Service in Novara, destined to become a nonconformist training center. Marcella Balconi criticized the rigid orthodoxy of institutional psychoanalysis, particularly the high cost of treatments. Her practical and original approach placed observation of the child and their family and social context as its cardinal principle. In the second half of his career, he integrated Kleinian theories with his previous Franco-Swiss and Annafreudian training, giving rise to an approach that was completely independent from any school or label. Elected to Parliament for the Communist Party in 1963, she fought for social rights and for the approval of Italian Law 444/1968 on state preschools, leaving behind a highly relevant legacy of teaching on the urgency of comprehensive community outreach and of consistently critical and multi-faceted education.

Keywords: Anti-fascist Resistance; Child Neuropsychiatry; Psychoanalysis; Families; Community psychiatry

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Alberto Merini, Paolo Migone, Giorgio Meneguz, Giancarlo Grasso, Enrica Crivelli, Nel ricordo di Marcella Balconi / Nota introduttiva / Marcella Balconi: l’investimento appassionato di una vita in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 1/2026, pp 87-100, DOI: 10.3280/PU2026-001005