I cannot definitively state whether psychoanalysis is capable of dialectically engaging its paradigms, models, and theoretical frameworks with contributions from external disciplines - as Amedeo inquired - but throughout my years of study, I have become convinced that Eric Kandel was correct when he stated, twenty-five years ago, that this openness to dialogue is essential for maintaining the vitality of psychoanalysis.

Beyond philosophy and the humanities, which have traditionally been more consonant with psychological training, I believe psychoanalysis must venture - more extensively than it has thus far - into the fascinating domains of neuroscience and computer science, allowing itself to be influenced without excessive fear of losing its identity.

The insights gained from years of engaging with neurobiological literature have been numerous and intellectually stimulating.
I consider the computational theories of predictive coding and their sophisticated elaboration by Friston, but particularly the emerging perspectives from cognitive neuroscience: affective neuroscience - the experimental study of affects, emotions, motivation, and pleasure - and social neuroscience - the mechanisms of our fundamentally relational nature, from the well-documented phenomenon of mirroring to the synchronization theories proposed by Ruth Feldman's affiliation neuroscience.
I also consider the advances in the biology of mind: epigenetics (research on intergenerational trauma transmission, such as Galit Atlas's work, and more broadly the trauma literature, building on Bessel Van der Kolk's contributions) and developments in microbiome research, which are opening significant perspectives in the pathophysiology and potential treatment of certain forms of depression; additionally, I consider the emerging frontier of research on integrating psychedelic substances into psychotherapeutic practice.

Furthermore, there exists the domain of the digital revolution, which may appear remote or abstruse but, in my assessment, is neither.
Consider, for example, the phenomenon of online psychotherapy, which did not originate with the recent pandemic (initial studies in the United States date back to the 1950s; in Italy, Paolo Migone, Roberto Goisis, and I published on this topic in the late 1990s). However, it remained for decades in the realm of the unspoken and unwritten (due to the profound fear of the anathema: "this is not psychoanalysis!") and now, I fear, may recede again once the immediate crisis has passed.

Yet scholars like Todd Essig have long attempted to introduce into the psychoanalytic discourse the themes of the digital revolution and the possibilities enabled by telecommunications development (I was an active participant in his The Psychoanalytic Connection, which flourished from 1993 to 2009). Currently, they are encouraging us toward active engagement (engaged participation, Psychoanalytic AI Activism) in the critical adoption of artificial intelligence tools and their broader cultural implications: the progressive substitution of direct encounters and vocal exchanges with texting, our advancement as sleepwalkers toward artificial intimacy in a world where simulated empathy (pretend empathy, in Sherry Turkle's apt formulation) and the erosion of trust and privacy are re-engineering interpersonal relationships and the experience of self.

Consequently, psychoanalysis must engage proactively (Essig directs the Council on Artificial Intelligence within APSaA) to reaffirm its values and principles in clinical work by developing new theoretical frameworks to comprehend and analyze the multifaceted reality of contemporary interpersonal relationships (in-person; screen-mediated with another person; with AI in the form of chatbots or robots - all of which we tend to anthropomorphize, as we have known since the days of ELIZA). We must also address the migration of psychotherapy toward app-based solutions (self-proclaimed therapists, coaches like Wysa, simple virtual companions like Replika) operated by opaque and uncontrollable algorithms (which, notably, appear to be effective - consider, for example, the recent RCT on Therabot for anxiety and depression).

This, I believe, represents the critical juncture: the integration of these developments into our educational curricula, from university classrooms to SPI training programs. We remain heavily focused on the historical dimension of knowledge, our origins (undoubtedly important), but insufficiently oriented toward the pragmatic future-directed dimension.
While we all possess a superficial familiarity with mirror neurons, remote psychotherapeutic treatments, or prompting of LLMs, and occasionally write about them, I observe that in practice, we achieve limited integration or dialectical engagement with our traditional mental constructs, which should be, at least partially, subject to critical examination.

Initially proposed by Eric Kandel as a new paradigm for psychiatry in the new millennium and supported in Italy, among others, by Mauro Mancia, the dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis has emerged as one of the most active frontiers in international interdisciplinary psychological research. The resultant possibility of moving beyond obligatory references to metapsychology toward the biology of mind represents a crucial challenge in repositioning psychoanalysis within the domain of scientifically verifiable and sustainable therapeutic approaches.

The fascinating neuroscientific discoveries in various domains apparently crucial to our theoretical framework - emotion, decision-making processes, the unconscious, interpersonal relationships and intersubjectivity, love, motivation, pleasure, behavioral choice and control, etc. - largely await integration into comprehensive theories that reformulate the insights gained from over a century of psychoanalysis in contemporary and scientifically valid terms.

My engagement (or more accurately, re-engagement) with neuroscience occurred somewhat serendipitously: while searching for texts to prepare for teaching psychosomatics at the Faculty of Psychology in Turin (a subject assigned to me rather than specifically chosen), I encountered Antonio Damasio's recently published work The Feeling of What Happens (2000). It was, I recall, a pivotal moment, as it allowed me to both accommodate Bion's insights (the foundational theorist of my psychoanalytic training) regarding the inadequacy of our mental apparatus for its tasks, and reconnect with my earlier involvement in neurobiology during medical school (having spent years in neurochemistry laboratory research before completing my dissertation on cholinergic mediators of anxiolytic drugs).

Motivated by Kandel's aforementioned perspectives, I began intensive study - in collaboration with Beatrice Cannella - and after several years (2005), our research first materialized in the publication on Psychomedia of Pionieri o Emigranti? Viaggio con la psicoanalisi nelle terre di confine (titled after Diego Napolitani's apt formulation), which we subsequently updated in 2007



followed by the volume published by Raffaello Cortina, La psicoanalisi nelle terre di confine

The book was primarily intended for our students and represented an attempt to consolidate years of research while establishing a foundation for future investigation. Though modest in its ambitions, it was among the first works to address the dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience, following the pioneering efforts of a group of Neapolitan colleagues (notably Franco Scalzone) and Mauro Mancia in Milan.
More broadly, it aimed to maintain scholarly interest while proposing a methodological approach. Rather than starting from psychoanalytic theory to seek correspondences or potential confirmations in neuroscientific findings (the characteristic approach of classical neuropsychoanalysis), we chose to explore and traverse the neuroscientific domain, attempting to render it less mindless, to use Filippo Cieri's felicitous expression, while maintaining our psychoanalytic knowledge in the cognitive background to identify potential insights or generate novel wild thoughts (an approach more recently adopted by Rosa Spagnolo and her Roman research group IPD/NPSA).

I have continued to examine the dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis through my blog



and in subsequent contributions (articles and book chapters, referenced in the 'My Writings' section), conferences, seminars, and my annually updated course "In dialogo con la psicoananlisi."

My initial engagement with digital technology began during my work in community mental health services, where I participated in a population socio-demographic mapping project utilizing the university's mini-computer. This involved spending considerable time preparing punch cards (in the 1970s!) to generate significant statistical data.
I was fascinated by this technological tool and, as soon as possible, began exploring the emerging field of computer science by writing my first basic programs on a Commodore 64.

The advent of personal computers naturally found me deeply interested in exploring their potential capabilities, which a modem allowed me to utilize in network communication with others (these were the BBS days: pre-Internet!). A Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, completed in 1988, helped me systematize my understanding of programming languages and potential developments in the field.

A significant turning point occurred through my interaction with a research colleague (Gian Paolo Zara) who was utilizing the revolutionary innovation of Internet connectivity (with its character-based interface, quite distinct from modern graphical applications).

I gained access to one of Italy's first Internet connections and embarked on an ongoing journey of exploration, knowledge acquisition, and professional networking. The local newspaper, La Stampa, provided me with an opportunity to disseminate this knowledge through a biweekly column (1995-1996).

The Internet rapidly became my primary tool for research, information gathering, and, to a lesser extent, engagement with digital media.

I soon encountered the emerging discipline of cyberpsychology, beginning with John Suler's seminal text The Psychology of Cyberspace, which naturally led to my research interest in remote psychotherapy...

I published my initial analysis of this topic in 1998 in the journal Psiche: Internet: A Challenge (a draft version is available on my website).

We subsequently decided to investigate this subject in greater depth through extensive discussions within the Online Therapy Study Group (2000-2001), which I co-coordinated with Pietro Roberto Goisis. This research culminated in a comprehensive 2002 article, Online Psychotherapy: A Tailored Approach, published in @psychotherapy, edited by Tonino Cantelmi, Simonetta Putti, and Massimo Talli (a version is available on Psychomedia).

In September 2021, again collaborating with Pietro Roberto Goisis, I edited the second section, titled "Online Therapy. Problems and Opportunities" of the Funzione Gamma journal issue dedicated to "The Pandemic and Online Therapy".

The section comprises five distinct segments:
How Did We Get Here?
The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Year of Online Experience
Theoretical Reflexions
Clinical Experience
On the Other Side of the Screen
concluding with a Photobook Images from some Online Settings,
and our Afterword:A Look Through the Nets.

Of particular scholarly significance are the contributions by Paolo Migone, and interviews with

My personal contributions include:
the introductory article The Prehistory, the First Clinical Experiences and the “Online Therapy Study Group”, co-authored with Pietro Roberto Goisis,
a comprehensive review of pre-pandemic international literature Online Psychotherapy Before the Covid-19 Pandemic,
and an analytical examination, with Beatrice Cannella, of challenges posed by new online therapeutic settings Online Therapy: Setting and Body.

The publication of this special issue catalyzed a series of conferences and seminars, culminating in late 2022 with the publication, in collaboration with Pietro Roberto Goisis, of a paper in Rivista di Psicoanalisi's monographic issue on risk (LXVIII, 3, July-September 2022) titled
The Challenges of Online Therapy: Psychoanalysis Facing Change.
This work was subsequently translated into English and published in
The Italian Psychoanalytic Annual, 2023.