The need of being. The existential discomfort and psychoanalytical practice

Journal title SETTING
Author/s Davide Corradetti
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2025/49
Language Italian Pages 9 P. 73-81 File size 52 KB
DOI 10.3280/SET2025-049006
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The article aims to examine some forms in which the existential discomfort of the individual is expressed within contemporary society, referring to the Westernized model, and how the psychoanalyst, as a human being embedded in the same context, can intervene in helping to address them. In particular, the manifestations of distress will be considered primarily from an existential point of view in relation to the individual's disorientation, their difficulty in finding meaning in their life, with consequent experiences of loneliness and relational and social problems. These arguments will be supported by the theoretical thought of authors from psychoanalytic and existential schools such as Erich Fromm and Rollo May, who were able to outline, with great predictive abilities, the characteristics of contemporary discomfort. Through a clinical vignette relating to a young adult patient, it will be seen how these forms of distress are reflected in the psychotherapeutic context.

Keywords: existential discomfort, existential psychoanalysis, contemporary discomfort, young adult psychotherapy, Erich Fromm, Rollo May

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Davide Corradetti, Il bisogno di essere: disagio esistenziale e clinica psicoanalitica in "SETTING" 49/2025, pp 73-81, DOI: 10.3280/SET2025-049006