Wilma Scategni

Dear Psychodramatist Friends,

I would like to thank Peter Felix for the chance that he has given us
to use this space to exchange our reflections and experiences
involving our professional and personal activities as
psychodramatists. First of all, I would like to invite any of my
fellow psychodramatists who may be interested to come to Italy to
participate one weekend as guests in my psychodrama training group.
You can reach me at my E-mail address <wscategn@tin.it>

Now I would like to tell you a little about myself and about
psychodrama in Italy. As a psychiatrist, my experience includes
fifteen years as director of a district mental health service. I am
among the founding members of FEPTO (the European Psychodrama
Federation Training Organization) and am serving as president of
APRAGI - Psychodrama (the Association for Research and Training in
Individual and Group Psychotherapy and in Institutional Analysis. I
am an instructor at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich as well as a
training analyst for the "historical " Jungian association that is
part of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. My
work in psychodrama is accompanied with work in individual analysis.
I practice mainly in Italy and particularly in Piedmont, where our
work and that of similar organizations has led to the spread of
psychodrama in the private realm and in public institutions.

The tendency of the psychodrama that I conduct is Jungian, as is
generally that of APRAGI. APRAGI is active in Turin and Palermo. Its
teaching fellows (Maurizio Gasseau, Giulio Gasca and I) lead various
basic groups and training groups (Level II) in Turin and in other
cities. Giovanni Boria runs an active school in Milan. He is a
leading exponent of classical Morenian psychodrama, which is
practiced in various other Italian cities. In addition, there are
other groups active in Italy that are Lacanian in orientation.

The theoretical hypotheses that I have elaborated over the span of my
work are based on an integration of the work of Moreno and Jung with
other experiences with Gestalt groups and with other bodily
techniques. For the past 20 years I have been conducting basic
analytical psychodrama groups, training groups (Level II), and
supervisory groups. In addition, I use psychodrama in conducting
supervisory groups for clinical cases that have been handled in
individual and group therapies in the public and private spheres. I
also conduct supervisory groups that use psychodrama to analyze
institutional dynamics in public psychiatric services. These groups
are set up both in continuous sessions and in seminars lasting one or
more days.

I have been directing the APRAGI School of Analytic Psychodrama for
eight years. I edit the journal, "Il sorriso del camaleonte --
International Review of Jungian Psychodrama" [The Chameleon's Smile],
which publishes articles by APRAGI psychodramatists as well as
translations of articles and reviews of books by the most important
European and international psychodramatists.

My specific research area involves dreams in psychodrama groups in
relation to the participants' daily lives and to the dreams' social
significance. These include dreams about groups, dreams brought into
groups, dreams enacted in groups, or simply dreams told about in
groups. My book treats the theme of the dream in psychodrama in
relation to everyday life. It has been published in Italian
("Psicodramma e terapia di gruppo -- Spazio e tempo dell'anima") and
German ("Das Psychodrama: Zwischen alltaglicher und archetypischer
Erfahrungswelt") and is being translated into English ("Psychodrama
and Group Therapy: the Space and Time of the Soul") and into Spanish.
Currently I am conducting a research project on the theme of the
social dream, which follows my leading of a workshop on this theme
along with Roberto De Innocentio and Anna Maria Traveni.

I extend to you my warmest greetings and welcome all exchanges with
my fellow psychodramatists on these and other issues.

Sincerely,

Wilma Scategni
<wscategn@tin.it>