Human Birth Theory Research Articles

A Primer on Human Birth Theory.

In the 1970s Massimo Fagioli (1931-2017) proposed a new theory of mind that he called the Human Birth Theory, based on a healthy conception of the baby and of the nonconscious mind. Fagioli made significant contributions to the understanding of mental dynamics at birth, the pathophysiology of mental illness, and the nonconscious identity of psychiatrists and psychotherapists. His original contributions to psychodynamic psychotherapy included variations on the setting and understanding of transference and dream interpretations that deviated from classical psychoanalytic techniques. This article introduces the basic tenets of Human Birth Theory, its neuropsychiatric correlates, and clinical applications.

Psychopathology of anorexia nervosa: a defence from depression. An interpretation according to Massimo Fagioli’s Human Birth Theory – two case reports

This paper focuses on anorexia nervosa with an emphasis on its onset and treatment, and it particularly addresses two aspects of the disease, which seem completely in contrast with one another – prolonged fasting and recurrent episodes of binge eating/purging behaviour. From a psychopathological viewpoint, these can be considered two symptoms of the same disease, whose psychopathological core is often depression. The anorexic phase is characterised by control of food intake and interpersonal relationships due to a paralysis of affections and mental rigidity, which often provide a schizoid defence against depression and sometimes against fragmentation. In the bulimic phase, a break in this defence reveals violent and uncontrollable affects beneath depression. One possible hypothesis to evaluate would be whether these alternating phases can be overcome if they are interpreted as a false resolution of an intrapsychic conflict as defined by Fagioli’s Human Birth Theory, based on a psychic defence reaction that may arise in newborns, and which he termed annulment pulsion. If pathogenic factors are present in the first year of life, the annulment pulsion may become pathological and can explain the psychosis in anorexia nervosa patients. This paper presents two clinical cases involving two young women, one suffering from anorexia nervosa purging type with self-induced vomiting complicated by comorbid drug abuse and the other suffering from anorexia nervosa binge eating/purging type and comorbid drug and alcohol abuse. Both were successfully treated with psychodynamic psychotherapy (individual and in groups) based on the interpretation of dreams according to Human Birth Theory, which posits that a dream is a thought expressing itself through images. The patients were treated for 4 and 5 years, respectively. The scores on three standardised tools, Eating Disorder Inventory-3, Symptom Checklist-90-Revised and Toronto Alexithymia Scale, administered before and at the end of treatment, accurately reflected their baseline condition and their clinical improvement. The treatment induced a reduction or resolution of symptoms and a qualitative improvement in the patients’ oneiric activity. The encouraging outcomes for these patients support the interpretative hypothesis proposed in this article and the value of the approach based on Human Birth Theory in treating anorexia nervosa. Further work on the subject is clearly warranted.

From animal instinct to human birth theory: an entangled path

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the discontinuity between animal and human birth. Starting from theories on animal instinct and those on animal/human behaviour; from Aristotle to Darwin, and the evolutionary synthesis of the 1940s, from distorted interpretations of Darwin's thought to some aspects of modern ethology and animal psychology, and the human birth theory, the manuscript tries to respond to the old question: what differences exist between animal behaviour and human behaviour? Trying to answer these questions, the Aristotelian scientific method and Darwin's theory of evolution are here discussed. The scientific-rational method is still not adequate to completely comprehend humankind. The main issue is the biological origin of the human psyche, the human birth theory postulated by Fagioli (2019a) several decades ago. The capability to imagine, which relates to the disappearance fantasy at human birth, is a crucial concept in the separation between humans and animals. These aspects will be thoroughly debated.

“Dimenticare” il bambino in auto: l’intelligenza nelle parole

The author begins the article by stating the inappropriate use of the words “to forget” and “forgetfulness” when referring to describe a child abandoned in a car under the blazing sun. She particularly speculates about this wrong use, since the concept of “annulment pulsion” was elaborated by Massimo Fagioli decades ago. By tracing back the history of the words “oblivion” and “memory”, the author demonstrates how since ancient times the ars memoriae conceived the mind as a physical space, a place. This spatial conception of the mind was widely spread among many philosophers such as Agustin, Giordano Bruno but also Descartes, Locke, Kant and Freud. This latter, in particular, was the founder of the psychoanalysis which is based on a process of uncovering what had been repressed. According to Freud, the amnesic trace does not disappear but is rather repressed (verdrangt in Freud’s language, that means “pushed away”). However, based on the Human Birth Theory framework, the mind expresses itself as movement throughout time: the amnesic trace disappears and then reappears. Understanding the mind as movement rather than space allows the comprehension of how a child can be unconsciously annulled.

From animal instinct to human birth theory: an entangled path

From animal instinct to human birth theory: an entangled path

Un ricordo di Massimo Fagioli

This article introduce to a special issue of “Il sogno della farfalle” entirely dedicated to the Italian psychiatrist Massimo Fagioli, who passed away on February 13th, 2017. Fagioli was the founder of the Human Birth Theory and of our journal. In this issue we transcribed and collected most of his recent public speeches, both at book presentations and in television broadcasts. The texts included cover a period starting in 2010 but belong mainly to the last one and half year, after the conferences of October and November 2015 celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Analisi collettiva. They allow to follow the thread of Fagioli’s research, showing how much it was active, vital and still continuously in development, in search for the most appropriate terms to describe the child’s reality, the dynamics of human birth and the definition of one’s own identity.

Fagioli's human birth theory and the possibility to cure mental illness

This paper deals with Fagioli's human birth theory and its implications on mental health. The first relevance of his theory lies in the discovery and formulation that human life and psychic activity begin at birth, with the reaction of the biological matter to light, an inanimate reality which is absent in the foetal condition. The dynamics that this theory demonstrates is common to all human beings as it represents the physiology of birth, in which body and mind arise together. Since his first book 'Death Instinct and Knowledge' (1972), Fagioli stated that mental illness is not a condition men are destined to, but rather a pathology that can be treated and cured through psychotherapy. Mental illness is a disease affecting the irrational, non-conscious dimension, determined by a deficiency of affection in early human relationships. This psychotherapeutic approach could provide new perspectives and possibilities for healthcare services and prevention policies.

Fagioli's human birth theory and the possibility to cure mental illness

Fagioli's human birth theory and the possibility to cure mental illness

Lo strano caso del dr. Ich e mr. Selbst: la negazione dell’identità non cosciente

The article examines, in their theoretical and historical development, the concepts of the Ego, of theSelf, and of human identity at birth as they have been elaborated within psychoanalysis, phenomenologyand the Human Birth Theory. No topic other than that which relates to human identityshows so overtly how issues relating to the Ego and to the Self cannot be tackled and developed ifone remains attached, even only partially, to the psychoanalytical and phenomenological tradition.Both psychoanalysis, with its idea of the unconscious, and phenomenology, with the notion of prereflexiveself-consciousness, are based on an old way of thinking, which is limited to material reality.The new ideas on a human identity at birth are expressed by analyzing new words. These allow toidentify the existence of a structure of mental reality at birth which is sure of the existence of oneselfand of the other; the loss of which, in parental relationships, is at the basis of mental disease.

Psichiatria e diritti umani: aspetti storici

Human rights, as well as activists who fight for these rights to be acknowledged and safeguarded, are under siege due to terroristic attacks taking place in the heart of France and Europe, and to migrations, the bombardments, and wars raging in the Middle East and throughout the world. Do we live in the age of rights or of their systematic violation? Psychiatry, which was born within the context of the ethical and religious rationalism of the French Revolution, just as human rights were, deteriorated until the first few years of the Twenty Century, going as far as lending ideological support to the Nazis’ criminal activities of sterilization and euthanasia of mentally diseased people. Psychiatry has also been an accomplice in the violation of human rights’ not only in Russia but also, more recently, in China. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789, just like the Declaration that was passed in 1948, made reference to a concept of “natural” which refers to the reality of human birth, whose meaning in individuals’ psychic life has never been understood by either philosophers or psychiatrists. Human Birth Theory by Massimo Fagioli, insofar as it refuses the term “natural” to be synonymous with inborn and with rational, as was true for Enlightenment thinkers, proposes a new idea of the origin of human rights and of relevant juridical capability on which these are based.

Car l’homme est fait pour rechercher l’humain. Rileggere Eugène Minkowski

The current crisis in reductionist psychiatry has aroused new interest in psychopathology. The intent is to go beyond diagnosis based on set categories and tackle mental disease not only from a biological point of view. Within this perspective, Minkowski’s thought is particularly interesting. The article proceeds by highlighting Minkowski’s originality in his time and how he differs from Binswanger, who lived at the same time as Minkowski and is possibly more appreciated and undoubtedly better known. By providing a new interpretation of his best known works, the article develops and highlights the link between Bergson, Husserl and Minkowski on the one hand, and that between Jaspers, Heidegger and Binswanger on the other. Apart from Minkowski’s relation with philosophy, the Authors also evaluate his relation with psychology, the unconscious and psychoanalysis, language and existential analytics. The Authors, by making reference to Human Birth Theory by Massimo Fagioli, highlight some intuitions and the originality of the phenomenological analysis in Minkowski’s work, which have never been evidenced.

La mente e il corpo nella schizofrenia

Starting from the etymology of the term “mind”, the Author analyses the question mind-body involved in the history of human thought since pre-socratic philosophers. In particular, the question still stands unresolved, both from an ontological and a methodological point of view, within the “philosophy of the mind”, neurosciences and psychiatry. Moreover, in the article, the Author analyses the implications of the concept of “causation” when it is used in its deterministic and simplistic meaning to understand human beings’ behaviour, which makes one fall into mistaken interpretations and tautologies again. The Author suggests a new way to face the question in the light of Human Birth Theory by Massimo Fagioli so as to escape from the traditional opposition between the mind and the body.

Introduzione. La teoria della nascita nella cura delle psicosi: un confronto internazionale

This article introduces a special issue of the journal which includes the papers inspired by the Human Birth Theory presented during the 9th International Conference on Early Psychosis (Tokyo 2014) and the 19th International Congress of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (New York 2015). The author reconstructs the diffusion of Massimo Fagioli’s theory out of Italy from its origins to its most recent developments, in the context of the ascent and decline of organicist psychiatry.

Using “deductive Method” in Psychotherapy: a Change of Paradigm in Clinical Practice From Quantum Field Theory

Introduction In psychotherapy, the object of study is not directly perceptible and material, but involves human mind complexity and specific content Objectives In psychotherapeutic relationship we propose a method to inspect by deduction non-conscious mind, patient hidden mood, hate, affectivity. Aims The aim of this work is using a modern physics research method in psychotherapy, in order to focus on what is not directly perceptible in clinical practice. Methods We can examine, instead of 'inductive method”, the 'deductive method”, adapted from physics theoretical approach. We have taken into consideration 'Human Birth Theory”, formulated in 1971 by psychiatrist Fagioli. The author conceived the beginning of human life as a neuropsyche reaction to light. Given the intrauterine dark, Fagioli deducted that brain at birth are activated by 'the absolutely new stimulus”, light. He also deducted 'vitality” and 'capability to imagine” as non-conscious mind features. We have checked recent neurobiological data in literature. Results Functional maturation of 'subplate zone”, light-inducted Immediate Early Genes activation, SATs variations, from foetus to newborn, retina instant activation by photon, 'viability” support Fagioli’s theory. Conclusions In relativistic physics and quantum field theory, deduction is finalised to discover hidden processes, in order to know the primum movens, not perceptible. In psychodynamic psychotherapy, the object par excellence is not just brain, like in neurology, but psyche. Its content is not directly knowable, but can be known also by deductive method, involving intuition, together perception of patient. In psychotherapy physics method can be applied, to discover the non-conscious thought, previous to pathological behaviour. Clinical examples can be reported.

I Say “no”. You Say “it Isn't”. About a New Understanding of the Concept of Negation.

Introduction In our opinion there is still confusion about the exact meaning of the term negation. As a consequence of this the importance of negation in the psychotherapeutic work is until now underestimated. Objectives For psychiatrists who work according to Fagioli's human birth theory the concept of negation is fundamental. Negation is a notion that refers to unconscious reality. Aims The task of the psychiatrist is to identify and to interpret the negation in the deformed dream images during the psychotherapeutic process. Methods In contrast to an intentional lie, which is communicated through verbal speech, negation corresponds to unconscious thoughts, which we can find in dreams. During sleep a transformation occurs, language is altered and expressed through images. Negation deforms the image. This deformation of the image happens in an unconscious process. This negation distorts the reality of the patient and his ability to interact with the other. Corresponding the relationship will be aggressive/destructive. The only way to identify this deformation is dream interpretation. Results Through this therapeutic process the patient will be able to intuit and realize instead of negate the positive qualities of the other and integrate these into his reality. Only human interaction that is free from negation enable the patient to overcome the ideo-affective splitting, which allows recovery of positive affects and the possibility of developing evolutive relationships. Conclusions Only a clarification of the term negation allows a psychotherapeutic process with the aim of developing evolutive relationships.

EPA-1689 – Neuropsychophysiology knowledge by fagioli's human birth theory can achieve the psychosis psychotherapy treatment

Physiology knowledge is basic for treating in psychiatry as in medicine. The neuropsychophysiology has always to be considered in psychiatric research, in order to manage a treatment based on scientific and medical principles. Our objective is to correlate a theoretical position to possibility of treating psychosis by psychotherapy. The aim of our study is focused on the ‘human birth theory’ that formulates a primitive neuropsychophysiological condition, so that healing can be conceived as recreation of the natural state. In Italy the birth's theory has been formulated by Fagioli through the ‘deductive method’ in 1971 and it has been focused on the activation of cerebral cortex and unconscious thought (’ pulsione ’), together by stimulation of light energy. This psychophysical activation includes ‘capacity to react’, ‘viability’ and ‘capacity to image’. Recent physiological findings strongly support this theory (Gatti, 2012). This theoretical position connects psychosis to the loss of complex psychosomatic human physiology, naturally current at birth, caused basicly by unconscious human relationship. We have observed that 42 Italian psychiatrists were adopting this method in 1992, while psychiatrists number has raised to 169 in 2013, with total of 1586 patients (413 psychotics) and 128 psychotherapy groups in 2009. An intervention based on those principles can aim to recreate physiology, as in medical practice. Consequently, healing psychosis like possible ‘ restitutio ad integrum ’ can be applied. The practice of this theoretical method in a specific group psychotherapy, focused on the research of lost physiological features, makes this recovery possible, by the human relationship to the psychotherapist.