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EPA-1691 - Schizophrenic Autism as an Expression of “Annulment Drive” Related to the Loss of the Original Vitality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

E. Gebhardt
Affiliation:
Psychological Sciences for Children and Adolescents, University of Rome “La Sapienza” and Studio Rosso, Roma, Italy
A. Mazzetta
Affiliation:
Mental Health Department, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy
L. Giorgini
Affiliation:
Psychological Sciences for Children and Adolescents, University of Rome “La Sapienza” and Studio Rosso, Roma, Italy
A. Cantini
Affiliation:
Mental Health Department, Public ASL RMD and Studio Cairoli, Roma, Italy
M. Petrucci
Affiliation:
Psychiatrie Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie, Christophbad Klinik, Goettingen, Germany
A. Raballo
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, Public ASL of Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy
D. Polese
Affiliation:
Residency program in Psychiatry Functional Area of Psychiatry Department of Neuroscience, Univeristy of Napoli “Federico II” Napoli and Studio Cairoli Roma, Roma, Italy

Abstract

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The concept of autism as described by Bleuler and Minkowski constitutes a key element for diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia. Bleuler in particular emphasized the possibility of non- productive yet symptomatic schizophrenia.

This argument seems to us very important because on the one hand the culture linked to DSM risks losing these historical knowledge and limits the diagnosis on productive or behavioral symptoms. Autism is an important clinical feature of schizophrenia and the related disorders of consciousness. Some features of autism are related to the symptom called ‘anhedonia’, considered by some authors and ranging from the ‘feeling of the loss of feelings’ typical of severe depression to schizophrenic abulia-apatia.

Our work focuses on the relation between these symptoms (which refer to the reality of consciousness) and an ‘instinctual’ reality that is actualized beyond the level of explicit consciousness.

Because these symptoms can roam around a common core, as part of affectivity, may be related to a psychopathological dimension of the second level, unconscious, in which the affective reality is primarily compromised. The annulment drive (Anulliertrieb, ‘pulsione di annullamento’), theorized by Fagioli (1971), as related to loss of vitality, can ‘cancel’ the psychic reality which lies at the foundation of affects and may explain both autism and anhedonia.

Fagioli’s theoretical formulations, in fact, include a basic human reality beyond consciousness (i.e. vitality), which gives origin to affective reality.

Type
P26 - Psychopathology
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2014
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