TY  -  JOUR
AU  -  Rinaldi, Fiamma
AU  -  Dell’Erba, Alice
AU  -  Mancini, Valentina
T1  -  Reframing causality in psychiatry: Massimo Fagioli’s theoretical contribution
PY  -  2025
Y1  -  2025-09-01
DO  -  10.1708/4583.45903
JO  -  Rivista di Psichiatria
JA  -  Riv Psichiatr
VL  -  60
IS  -  5
SP  -  214
EP  -  222
PB  -  Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore
SN  -  2038-2502
Y2  -  2026/04/29
UR  -  http://dx.doi.org/10.1708/4583.45903
N2  -  Summary. This paper explores the concept of causality in Massimo Fagioli’s works, in the context of his ‘Human Birth Theory’, especially with respect to propositions in Western philosophical thought and to the psychiatric debate. In the history of philosophy, the nature of cause-and-effect relationship has taken on three basic meanings: regular succession, rational deductibility and productive power. We propose how these are rethought in Fagioli’s theorisation as follows: as psychic activity (reaction), as dynamic phenomenon in the context of an unconscious relationship, and as human creativity. In particular, Fagioli analyzed how, within sadomasochistic relationships, the subject unconsciously conceives a concept of cause as constant repetition, and how this dynamic is resolved pathologically with the annulment pulsion, through the psychic elimination of the external object. This makes it possible to regard interhuman relationships as irrational, unconscious dynamics. Finally, the concept of cause is reconsidered based on the internal emergence of new psychic contents for the disappearance fantasy – psychic human creativity – originating at birth. Implications for psychopathology, psychodynamics and psychotherapy are then discussed.
ER  -