International Talk:“Beyond the fears: thinking the unthinkable?”

One of the first subjects of research of Ariele’s Polis Group is about the role of the Mayor, which in Italy represents the most significant and generally acknowledged junction between institutions and the civil society.
The interviews with a sample of small and medium-large City Mayors in some of the Lombard provinces explored the richness and complexity of this role, which combines different areas of responsibility
and relational vertexes, among which, in particular, there are:
• listening and representing the interests, needs and aspirations of the voting citizens and local communities;
• the responsibility of the functioning of the city’s organizational machine
• the management of the working groups at every level;
• the two-way relationship with all roles, inside and outside administration;
the personal ability to embed work and personal life, duty and love.

The psychosocioanalytical individual interviews revealed some common issues about the role combined with a very high level of anxiety, which makes the capacity of coping one of the main issues to be effective in the role.
The Covid-19 pandemia and the consequent medical emergency stressed an already difficult situation, placing the Mayors of the main cities at the core of citizen’s needs and expectations.
In the workshop we will therefore ask ourselves if the Mayor is, today, the organizer of the local community needs or its scapegoat.

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The Lodi canteens case had a strong resonance locally, nationally and internationally, able to rally thousands of people in preventing a discriminatory episode against weaker sections of the immigrant population: the children.
“In 2017, the City Council of Lodi approved the amendment to the Regulation on access to social benefits (municipal services at a lower rate) requiring non-EU citizens who needed access to such services to obtain
from their consulate or embassy a certificate attesting the income and registered movable or immovable assets owned abroad, as well as the composition of the household. This certification must be accompanied
by the Italian translation, legalized by the Italian Consular Authority certifying its conformity.”
This was deemed as an attempt to establish a discriminatory approach disguised as equity in the social culture.
“The Court of Appeal of Milan, Section of Persons, Minors, Family, has completely rejected the appeal to the judgment of the first instance brought by League Party member and mayor Sara Casanova and “has ascertained – as we read in the judgment filed yesterday – the discriminatory behaviour of the City of Lodi.”
Thanks to the wide resonance of the media, this political choice activated very significant enforcement and restorative actions and genuine solidarity both on local and national level.
Through the narrative of some of these traumatic and divisive aspects of the social life, the research group would like to reflect upon the possibility of a psychosocioanalytical intervention in the Polis.
Can the Psychosocioanalysis:
Help social groups to reflect upon social conflict?
Raise awareness on the meaning and the purpose of people’s actions?
Grasp the fears and the underlying dynamics of collusion and defense against conflict operating on individuals and groups?
Traditional theories and tools of the organizational setting could be effective in the wider area of the polis?
This is the topic we aim to discuss together.

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The Listening Post methodology was born in OPUS at the end of the 70s as an ongoing research to explore dynamics of change in society, and subsequently developed and standardized to constitute an international network.
Listening Posts (LP) are regular meetings that take a ‘snapshot’ of society at a particular moment in time. They explore the idea that a small group, when studying the behaviour of the wider social system that is society, will unconsciously express some of the characteristics of society and that these are discernible from the themes and patterns emerging from the discussion.This method of exploring the underlying dynamics in society is without parallel as a piece of social science research, with data now available from over 30 countries around the world.
Since 2011 Ariele takes part to the OPUS International Listening Post Project, convening at least once a year LP sessions in Milan in order to observe the conscious and unconscious dynamics of change and the sociocultural trends of development.
LP is therefore a relevant contribute to the understanding of what is happening in a certain particular moment in society, through the sharing of experiences, thoughts and reflections of the participants in their role of “reflective citizens”.
Since the beginning of 2020 the International Listening Post (ILP) is held online, which allows the sharing of cross-cultural experiences face to the global pandemia and to develop a new idea of “global citizenship”, without borders.
In the workshop we will present a quick overview of the methodology and of the most relevant findings of the last Global Report, which will be amplified in the discussion with all the participants.
Materials about LP and the Global Report will be shared in advance; further experience of participation to LP sessions is welcomed but not necessarily required.

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One of the experiences which contributed to the observation and the collection of helpful elements in fueling the research on the “contemporary fears” promoted by Ariele Associazione Italiana di Psicosocioanalisi Polis Group regards an interview conducted in the Spring of 2019 addressed to twelve-grade teenagers from a scientific High School in a semi-suburban neighbourhood in Milan, using the pshycosocioanalytical group interview, focused on the contents, on the processes and on the emerging psychic instances.
The purpose of this workshop is to share and discuss how the words of the boys and girls were a prediction of the pandemia: mourning vision of the future, fear of death and loss, loneliness and isolation , poverty, anxiety of failure.
Are they predicting Covid-19 vulnerability and powerlesness of us all?
In this workshop we are going to discuss about fears and future of the young generation and to explore the role of Institutions to face the Covid-19 pandemic period, with an innovative approach.

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This workshop aims to present the role of Ariele Psicoterapia in the Brescia Welfare Board in order to promote participation processes and create a group named “Psychologists for Welfare” to analyze emerging issues in the “Polis” and discuss them with citizens. (2016-2017-2019)
In 2020, “Psychologists for Welfare” group, promoted a psychological SOS service for COVID, under the aegis of the Civil Defence, coordinated by the Metropolitan Municipality.

This project could be defined as a succesfull one because of:
– the attention to the internal and external dynamics,
– the attention to communication between different stakeholder,

These are good practices that help different actors (citizens Institution, ) to participate in the creation of a new idea of Welfare.

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