Introduction

EDITORIAL – 50 YEARS OF COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY IN ITALY

La Terapia Comportamentale, divenuta ben presto Terapia Cognitivo-Comportamentale (TCC, ovvero la CBT in inglese), fu introdotta in Italia cinquanta anni fa. Le due principali associazioni di TCC italiane ricordano questo anniversario. L’AIAMC (l’Associazione Italiana di Analisi e Modificazione del Comportamento) tiene a Napoli, nell’ambito del XVIII Congresso “Ritorno al futuro dal comportamentismo al cognitivismo andata e ritorno”, una Tavola […]

CLINICAL CASE OF CORRADO

The case of a homosexual patient sent to a psychology service for depressive-anxious symptoms is described. The patient had adopted an avoidance coping and a passive-anassertive attitude towards his sexual orientation, especially due to the shame deriving from a self-stigma. He had a brother who was married with three children and died 3 years earlier. The trans-diagnostic framework of the clinical case leads to the identification of short, medium and long-term therapeutic objectives such as: immediate psychological support, and then, once the mood had improved, reduction self-stigma for HIV, internalized homophobia, and then the coping with social problems and avoidance behaviors. Recognizing that his avoidance behaviors have been learned in the family context, psychotherapy proceeded rapidly, especially since the patient has started making decisions in his favor and following his preference. Today he has moved to a new home where he lives happily, he also bought a new car and meets a man he has been dating for a few months.

Historical Archive

Vic Meyer, of Polish origin, was a British psychologist at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School of the University of London (now UCL Medical School) and is considered the “spiritual father” of clinical case formulation, an approach to understanding complex psychiatric problems using learning principles derived from experimental psychological research and idiographically adapted to the individual case to develop an effective intervention regimen.