Francesco Gazzillo
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 4623673 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Francesco Gazzillo |
| NOMBRES | Francesco |
| APELLIDO | Gazzillo |
| FIRMA | GAZZILLO F |
| AFILIACIONES | Sapienza University of Rome |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7955-3710 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 28 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 0 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 28 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2010 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 0 |
Assessing guilt in childhood
The aim of the present study introduces and validates the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale for Children (IGRS-17C) and the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale – Child Informant (IGRS-18CI), two novel instruments grounded in Control-Mastery Theory (CMT) and designed to assess interpersonal guilt in children and early adolescents aged 7 to 14 years. A total of 309 parent–child dyads completed the measures, together with the Child Behavior Checklist (C…
Sense of Emptiness
The sense of emptiness is still a poorly defined construct in the literature, yet it is frequently reported in individuals with borderline personality disorder, depressive symptoms, and narcissistic personality disorder. This paper aims to replicate those research studies showing that there are significant correlations between emptiness, insecure attachment styles, maladaptive childhood experiences, shame, impulsivity, depression, and borderline …
The core assumptions of the control-mastery theory and their implications
This paper aims to identify the core assumptions of the control-mastery theory (CMT) – those assumptions whose falsification would determine the abandonment of the theory itself. These concepts are the adaptive nature of basic human motivations; the sophisticated and adaptive nature of unconscious mental functioning; the overarching role of safety in the regulation of conscious and unconscious mental functioning; the prosocial nature of certain b…
Self-hate
This paper aims to provide an overview of self-hate, a concept developed by control-mastery theory (CMT) to describe a set of pathogenic beliefs that share the common core of a deeply negative self-representation and self-evaluation, and that are often at the basis of severe personality pathology. Pathogenic beliefs that support self-hate are developed to adapt to early traumatic relationships that made the person feel unrecognized and unloved fo…
Measuring personality change in psychoanalytic treatments
Childhood Emotional Abuse and Somatic Symptoms
Childhood emotional abuse is a recognized factor for long‐term psychological and physical health problems, including persistent somatic symptoms. Negative self‐beliefs, such as self‐hate‐related beliefs, may explain how emotional mistreatment contributes to physical distress in adulthood beyond general emotional difficulties. A longitudinal study was conducted with 298 help‐seeking adults. At baseline, participants completed measures of childhood…
Guilt over success, impostor phenomenon, and self-sabotaging behaviors
Impostor phenomenon refers to the psychological feeling of intellectual phoniness. It can favor failures and support a scarce perception of one’s own competence in order to protect social relations. The aim of this study was to investigate, with a longitudinal design, the contribution of fear of success and guilt over success in the experience of impostor phenomenon and its connections to maladaptive behaviors, such as submission and self-handica…
Burdening guilt
The aim of this paper is to explore the theoretical and clinical features of burdening guilt according to control-mastery theory (CMT), an integrative, relational cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. CMT posits that burdening guilt stems from the belief that one’s emotions, needs, and way of being are a burden to significant others. After having introduced some research data about the belief of being…
Notes on some non-psychotic hypochondriacal states
The aim of this paper is to propose a psychodynamic hypothesis based on control-mastery theory (CMT) about the self-punishment function of some non-psychotic hypochondriacal states. After a review of several major psychoanalytic hypotheses about hypochondria, we will show the main concepts of CMT, an integrative, relational, cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and therapeutic process that is the theoretical framework …
Safety in control-mastery theory
This study presents an overview of the development of the main psychoanalytic conceptions regarding safety, an aspect that has received increasing attention within the psychoanalytic literature. After describing the hypotheses of Sigmund Freud, Joseph Sandler, John Bowlby, and Harry Stack Sullivan, the study focuses on the ideas proposed by Joseph Weiss and on control-mastery theory (CMT), a cognitive-dynamic relational theory of mental functioni…
Understanding interpersonal guilt
The aim of this article is to empirically investigate the relationships among interpersonal guilt, as conceived within control‐mastery theory (CMT), and attachment, altruism, and personality pathology in an English‐speaking sample. An online sample of 393 participants was recruited to complete the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale self‐report version‐15 (IGRS‐15s), together with other empirically validated measures for the assessment of attachment…
The adaptive unconscious in psychoanalysis
This paper aims to emphasize the fundamental role of unconscious processes in our adaptation. We will point out how we are able to unconsciously perform higher mental functions such as setting goals and planning how to pursue them, dealing with complex data, and making choices and judgments. In the first part of this paper, we will describe the main features of conscious and unconscious processes as pointed out by recent empirical research studie…
Survivor guilt
The aim of this paper is to give the reader an overview of several theoretical, empirical, and clinical features of survivor guilt, and to integrate recent contributions of psychodynamic theory and, in particular, of control-mastery theory into the understanding of the concept alongside the latest findings in social psychology about it. After introducing the concept of survivor guilt and its origins in clinical observations on the consequences of…
Through flow and swirls
The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss the models of the process of change in psychotherapy developed by the Boston Change Process Study Group (2010), and by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993; Weiss, Sampson, & the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986). The first model is centered on change in implicit relational knowledge and describes the process of change as being…
Personalizing psychotherapy for personality disorders
While several empirically supported models for treating personality disorder (PD) are available, researchers and clinicians have continued to advocate for the personalization of psychotherapy to the particular needs and characteristics of the individual patient with severe personality pathology. Control- Mastery Theory (CMT; Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993; Weiss, Sampson, & The Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986) provi…
The adaptive function of fantasy
The aim of this paper is to show the evolution of the psychoanalytic conception of fantasy/phantasy from a psychic activity aimed at denying reality and/or fulfilling frustrated wishes to a tool useful for adapting to reality. We will then review some recent findings of empirical research on imagination and mental simulation showing how these activities, and mind wandering in general, is expression of the constant effort of the psyche to set and …
Pathological worry and rumination according to control-mastery theory
The aim of this article is to propose an interpretation of pathological worry and rumination based on the control-mastery theory (CMT), an integrative, relational cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and psychotherapy process developed by Joseph Weiss and empirically verified by Weiss, Harold Sampson, and the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group over the last 50 years. In the first part of this article, we will i…
Attachment disorganization and severe psychopathology
A good enough theory of psychological functioning and development, and of how psychotherapy works, should take into account recent scientific developments about emotional, motivational, and cognitive functioning. They show how human beings are "wired" to adapt to reality and share a set of evolutionarybased emotions, motivations and skills that are shaped by the cognitive-affective structures (schemas) developed on the basis of the emotionally re…
The plan formulation method for couples
This article proposes an adaptation to couple therapy of the Plan Formulation Method, an empirically validated and clinically useful assessment procedure for planning case-specific psychotherapy interventions. According to Control-Mastery Theory (CMT), individuals who seek psychotherapy have an unconscious plan, which comprises goals, obstructions, tests, traumas, and insights. The Plan Formulation Method was developed to reliably formulate indiv…
New developments in understanding morality
The aim of this article is to present an overview of several recently proposed hypotheses about the development of morality and guilt during the evolution of our species and the individual psychic development. The article will show how group selection seems to have favored the development of prosocial motivations, emotions, and skills, which are the basis of “moral” judgments and behaviors, and how the specific experiences of each individual and …
Dreaming and adaptation
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the meaning and functions of dreams according to controlmastery theory (CMT), a cognitive-dynamic relational theory developed and empirically validated in the last 40 years by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993a; Weiss, Sampson, & the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986). CMT stresses how dreams reflect the person's efforts to adapt to re…
Patients’ unconscious testing activity in psychotherapy
The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical and empirical overview of the hypothesis that patients' behavior in psychotherapy can be understood as an expression of their efforts to disprove their pathogenic beliefs by testing them in the therapeutic relationship. According to Control-Mastery Theory (CMT; Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1986, 1994), psychopathology stems from unconscious pathogenic beliefs developed in response to…
The components of psychoanalysis
In an empirical study of psychoanalytic processes, the authors identify therapist, patient, and interaction factors from 2 instruments totaling 31 items based on clinicians’ evaluation of 540 sessions from 27 completely recorded psychoanalyses. The 2 instruments, developed over 30 years studying recorded psychoanalyses, are the Analytic Process Scales (APS; Waldron, Scharf, Hurst, Firestein, & Burton, 2004b) and the Dynamic Interaction Scales (DI…
Mentalization as a predictor of psychoanalytic outcome
The Reflective Functioning Scale (Fonagy, Target, Steele, & Steele, 1998) was developed to empirically assess the capacity to mentalize thoughts, intentions, feelings and beliefs of oneself and others in the context of attachment relationships (Jurist & Meehan, 2009). To overcome the complexity of the RF scale scoring, the Computerized Text Analysis measure of Reflective Functioning (CRF) was created by Fertuck, Mergenthaler, Target, Levy, and Cl…
The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual Version 2 (PDM-2)
This article reviews the development of the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, the PDM-2. We begin by placing the PDM in historical context, describing the structure and goals of the first edition of the manual, and reviewing some initial responses to the PDM within the professional community. We then outline 5 guiding principles intended to maximize the clinical utility and heuristic value of PDM-2, and we delineate strategie…
Sin obras prominentes en esta página.
An empirically supported psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysts have long relied on the case study method to support the validity of their theoretical hypotheses and clinical techniques and the efficacy of their treatments. However, limitations of the case study method have become increasingly salient as the medical-scientific community and policymakers have increasingly emphasized the need for empirical data. This article describes the progression of an analysis from the perspective of both th…
Integrating the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure and Rorschach Composite Measures for exploring psychopathological patterns of mental functioning
This study addressed the exploration of a multimethod psychodynamic assessment and its relation to psychopathological patterns. The study applies the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP; Shedler, J., & Westen, D., 2006, Personality diagnosis with Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP): Bridging the gulf between science and practice. In P. D. M. Task Force (Ed.), Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (pp. 573–613). Silver Spring, MD: Alliance …
Relational and classical elements in psychoanalyses
The first aim of this article is to report a newly developed measure of therapeutic process, the Dynamic Interaction Scales. When combined with the Analytic Process Scales (Waldron, Scharf, Crouse, et al., 2004; Waldron, Scharf, Hurst, et al., 2004), the two instruments permit a reliable and fine-grained assessment of technical and relational aspects of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapeutic process. The Shedler-Westen Assessment Proc…
The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual Version 2 (PDM-2)
This article reviews the development of the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, the PDM-2. We begin by placing the PDM in historical context, describing the structure and goals of the first edition of the manual, and reviewing some initial responses to the PDM within the professional community. We then outline 5 guiding principles intended to maximize the clinical utility and heuristic value of PDM-2, and we delineate strategie…
The components of psychoanalysis
In an empirical study of psychoanalytic processes, the authors identify therapist, patient, and interaction factors from 2 instruments totaling 31 items based on clinicians’ evaluation of 540 sessions from 27 completely recorded psychoanalyses. The 2 instruments, developed over 30 years studying recorded psychoanalyses, are the Analytic Process Scales (APS; Waldron, Scharf, Hurst, Firestein, & Burton, 2004b) and the Dynamic Interaction Scales (DI…
Mentalization as a predictor of psychoanalytic outcome
The Reflective Functioning Scale (Fonagy, Target, Steele, & Steele, 1998) was developed to empirically assess the capacity to mentalize thoughts, intentions, feelings and beliefs of oneself and others in the context of attachment relationships (Jurist & Meehan, 2009). To overcome the complexity of the RF scale scoring, the Computerized Text Analysis measure of Reflective Functioning (CRF) was created by Fertuck, Mergenthaler, Target, Levy, and Cl…
Patients’ unconscious testing activity in psychotherapy
The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical and empirical overview of the hypothesis that patients' behavior in psychotherapy can be understood as an expression of their efforts to disprove their pathogenic beliefs by testing them in the therapeutic relationship. According to Control-Mastery Theory (CMT; Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1986, 1994), psychopathology stems from unconscious pathogenic beliefs developed in response to…
Attachment disorganization and severe psychopathology
A good enough theory of psychological functioning and development, and of how psychotherapy works, should take into account recent scientific developments about emotional, motivational, and cognitive functioning. They show how human beings are "wired" to adapt to reality and share a set of evolutionarybased emotions, motivations and skills that are shaped by the cognitive-affective structures (schemas) developed on the basis of the emotionally re…
The plan formulation method for couples
This article proposes an adaptation to couple therapy of the Plan Formulation Method, an empirically validated and clinically useful assessment procedure for planning case-specific psychotherapy interventions. According to Control-Mastery Theory (CMT), individuals who seek psychotherapy have an unconscious plan, which comprises goals, obstructions, tests, traumas, and insights. The Plan Formulation Method was developed to reliably formulate indiv…
New developments in understanding morality
The aim of this article is to present an overview of several recently proposed hypotheses about the development of morality and guilt during the evolution of our species and the individual psychic development. The article will show how group selection seems to have favored the development of prosocial motivations, emotions, and skills, which are the basis of “moral” judgments and behaviors, and how the specific experiences of each individual and …
Dreaming and adaptation
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the meaning and functions of dreams according to controlmastery theory (CMT), a cognitive-dynamic relational theory developed and empirically validated in the last 40 years by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993a; Weiss, Sampson, & the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986). CMT stresses how dreams reflect the person's efforts to adapt to re…
Through flow and swirls
The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss the models of the process of change in psychotherapy developed by the Boston Change Process Study Group (2010), and by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993; Weiss, Sampson, & the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986). The first model is centered on change in implicit relational knowledge and describes the process of change as being…
Personalizing psychotherapy for personality disorders
While several empirically supported models for treating personality disorder (PD) are available, researchers and clinicians have continued to advocate for the personalization of psychotherapy to the particular needs and characteristics of the individual patient with severe personality pathology. Control- Mastery Theory (CMT; Gazzillo, 2016; Silberschatz, 2005; Weiss, 1993; Weiss, Sampson, & The Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986) provi…
The adaptive function of fantasy
The aim of this paper is to show the evolution of the psychoanalytic conception of fantasy/phantasy from a psychic activity aimed at denying reality and/or fulfilling frustrated wishes to a tool useful for adapting to reality. We will then review some recent findings of empirical research on imagination and mental simulation showing how these activities, and mind wandering in general, is expression of the constant effort of the psyche to set and …
Pathological worry and rumination according to control-mastery theory
The aim of this article is to propose an interpretation of pathological worry and rumination based on the control-mastery theory (CMT), an integrative, relational cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and psychotherapy process developed by Joseph Weiss and empirically verified by Weiss, Harold Sampson, and the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group over the last 50 years. In the first part of this article, we will i…
Understanding interpersonal guilt
The aim of this article is to empirically investigate the relationships among interpersonal guilt, as conceived within control‐mastery theory (CMT), and attachment, altruism, and personality pathology in an English‐speaking sample. An online sample of 393 participants was recruited to complete the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale self‐report version‐15 (IGRS‐15s), together with other empirically validated measures for the assessment of attachment…
The adaptive unconscious in psychoanalysis
This paper aims to emphasize the fundamental role of unconscious processes in our adaptation. We will point out how we are able to unconsciously perform higher mental functions such as setting goals and planning how to pursue them, dealing with complex data, and making choices and judgments. In the first part of this paper, we will describe the main features of conscious and unconscious processes as pointed out by recent empirical research studie…
Survivor guilt
The aim of this paper is to give the reader an overview of several theoretical, empirical, and clinical features of survivor guilt, and to integrate recent contributions of psychodynamic theory and, in particular, of control-mastery theory into the understanding of the concept alongside the latest findings in social psychology about it. After introducing the concept of survivor guilt and its origins in clinical observations on the consequences of…
Safety in control-mastery theory
This study presents an overview of the development of the main psychoanalytic conceptions regarding safety, an aspect that has received increasing attention within the psychoanalytic literature. After describing the hypotheses of Sigmund Freud, Joseph Sandler, John Bowlby, and Harry Stack Sullivan, the study focuses on the ideas proposed by Joseph Weiss and on control-mastery theory (CMT), a cognitive-dynamic relational theory of mental functioni…
Guilt over success, impostor phenomenon, and self-sabotaging behaviors
Impostor phenomenon refers to the psychological feeling of intellectual phoniness. It can favor failures and support a scarce perception of one’s own competence in order to protect social relations. The aim of this study was to investigate, with a longitudinal design, the contribution of fear of success and guilt over success in the experience of impostor phenomenon and its connections to maladaptive behaviors, such as submission and self-handica…
Burdening guilt
The aim of this paper is to explore the theoretical and clinical features of burdening guilt according to control-mastery theory (CMT), an integrative, relational cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. CMT posits that burdening guilt stems from the belief that one’s emotions, needs, and way of being are a burden to significant others. After having introduced some research data about the belief of being…
Notes on some non-psychotic hypochondriacal states
The aim of this paper is to propose a psychodynamic hypothesis based on control-mastery theory (CMT) about the self-punishment function of some non-psychotic hypochondriacal states. After a review of several major psychoanalytic hypotheses about hypochondria, we will show the main concepts of CMT, an integrative, relational, cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and therapeutic process that is the theoretical framework …
The core assumptions of the control-mastery theory and their implications
This paper aims to identify the core assumptions of the control-mastery theory (CMT) – those assumptions whose falsification would determine the abandonment of the theory itself. These concepts are the adaptive nature of basic human motivations; the sophisticated and adaptive nature of unconscious mental functioning; the overarching role of safety in the regulation of conscious and unconscious mental functioning; the prosocial nature of certain b…
Self-hate
This paper aims to provide an overview of self-hate, a concept developed by control-mastery theory (CMT) to describe a set of pathogenic beliefs that share the common core of a deeply negative self-representation and self-evaluation, and that are often at the basis of severe personality pathology. Pathogenic beliefs that support self-hate are developed to adapt to early traumatic relationships that made the person feel unrecognized and unloved fo…
Measuring personality change in psychoanalytic treatments
Psychology (25 obras) · Psychotherapist (20 obras) · Psychoanalysis (19 obras) · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications (16 obras) · Clinical Psychology (10 obras) · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology (10 obras) · Developmental psychology (8 obras) · Social Psychology (8 obras) · Psychoanalytic theory (7 obras) · Psychopathology (6 obras)