Developmental Ruptures The psychoanalysis of breakdown and defensive solutions

"In this fascinating volume, Anna Nicolò masterfully combines her long and in-depth international experience with the innovative creativity of Italian psychoanalysis, of which she is today one of the most authoritative and appreciated exponents. The result is a free and wide-ranging - though rigorous - capacity for theoretical articulation, with special effectiveness in the in-depth clinical reading of adolescent situations and their kaleidoscopic evolutionary complexity".

Stefano Bolognini, IPA past president

"In her excellent book Developmental Ruptures, Anna Maria Nicolò gives a vivid and subtle representation of adolescent psychic turmoil. She goes beyond the classification of adult psychopathology, to detect the evolutive power most often hidden in adolescent ruptures and collapses. Due to her exceptional clinical and theoretical competences, she opens broadly the field of observation and of listening of adolescent patients, and she proves that 'adolescence is not only a temporal phase, but also an enzyme that permeates the mind and forces to confront oneself with the life cycle' - as she writes. Every practitioner in the field of psychic disease will benefit from reading this outstanding book."

Florence Guignard, Founder of the Société Européenne pour la Psychanalyse de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent (Sepea), Honorary full member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society (SPP)

"This book is an important contribution to the psychoanalysis of young people. The author shares her vast clinical experience and also her approach to theory from a pluralistic and open approach. We have long been used to thinking in terms of processes and continuities. The concept of ruptures is very timely in the context of the times we have been living in, where uncertainty and disruption predominate. Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable and prone to break-ups in this context. This book is essential reading for those who work with these patients."

Virginia Ungar, M.D., Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association; IPA Past President