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FrancoAngeli Journals

Relazioni/Presentations, a cura di Giuseppe Sampognaro e Alessandra Vela

N. 1 (2026): Appartenenza ed autoregolazione in psicoterapia della Gestalt

Il Campo Fenomenico Interattivo e lo Spazio di Vita: una Traccia per un Concetto Ecologico di Psicoterapia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/qg2026-1oa22557
Inviata
15 aprile 2026
Pubblicato
30-06-2026

Abstract

Based on the phenomenology of the body and ecological psychology, this paper introduces a series of concepts that enable us to overcome the still prevailing idea of an inner psyche and a corresponding individualistic view of psychopathology. These concepts are the phenomenal field, lived space, intercorporeality, and body memory; they correspond to an embodied, enactive, and ecological view of the mind. On their basis, psychiatric illnesses may be conceived as relational disorders resulting in various restrictions and impairments of the patient’s lived space (where ‘living space’ refers to the totality of the space that a person inhabits and experiences in a pre-reflective manner, encompassing the various situations, conditions and movements that fall within their scope).

From this perspective, rather than locating suffering within the patient or their brain, it can be viewed as a phenomenon that emerges from the relational space in which the person lives. The psychopathological field is therefore conceived as a specific alteration of the phenomenal field. An alteration characterised by a tendency to enact and experience patterns of stressful, painful, impaired, or failing interactions and relationships.

The traditional aim of psychotherapy is to produce change primarily in the patient and thus to treat his or her malfunctions. In contrast, the phenomenological approach shifts the focus from what happens inside of the patient to what emerges in the interactive phenomenal field which becomes the major agent of change. The main tasks of psychotherapy, then, are to use the interactive phenomenal field as a means of restructuring the patient’s relational patterns and to support his or her capacity to engage in more beneficial interactions with others. In this way, phenomenology can valuably contribute to a deeper understanding of the intricate processes of the psychotherapeutic encounter.  Such a perspective is in line with the relational and intersubjective turn taken by psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in general, not least under the influence of infant and attachment research.

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