Abstract
This chapter provides three of A. Piontelli’s clinical examples are Giulia, Pina and Alice and Luca. Interestingly, Piontelli saw Giulia in twice-weekly psychotherapy after the birth of her brother when she was three. Giulia’s reaction to his birth was to close herself up in her room and to sleep, to cling to her mother, and to refuse to see visitors. The case description suggests that this tendency of Pina’s is not only rooted in the prenatal experience of near abortion and her mother’s anxiety and concern for their endangered relationship, but in the continued concern about whether she can be held sufficiently to keep her from danger. In follow-up visits, Luca continued to be more active than Alice, both in terms of psychomotor exploration and in terms of various indications of interest in the outside world: walking, talking, looking at pictures, and drawing. Alice, more placid and seemingly less intelligent, followed Luca by a few months, and a bit less proficiently.