I grew up in Argentina in a caring and loving family that was however marked by multiple bereavements on both my parents’ histories. Added to that was immigration from Italy on my father’s side.

I have gone several times to visit Morano Calabro and Castrovillari, the towns in Calabria where my Italian side of the family came from. There is there a fantastic combination of medieval architecture and beautiful scenery. I love Italy and I have been there many times.

My parents were working class anarchists and my father a popular trade unionist. He was a self taught man who became an author, freelance lecturer and historian of the trade unions in Latin America. He was a very ethical, honest and friendly man who advocated political freedom and social justice. I have fully adopted my parents’ principles of political freedom and social justice.

I am not going to say more about my personal and family history. All I can say is that as any other human being I have experienced losses and separations. I have happily enjoyed life and had moments of sadness and despair. In the face of adversity I sought help. I have three grown up children who are mentally healthy and emotional stable, so I feel I have done a good job as a father and family man.

I trained as a medical doctor in the city of Rosario (Argentina). Medicine was intertwined with psychoanalytic psychology. As a medical student I joined a study group on psychosomatic medicine of which Dr. Isaac Abecasis was a distinguished pioneer. I also started my first personal analysis.

In the early years of my medical career I gained experience in pathology (doing biopsies). Initially, I worked in Rosario (Argentina) at the Carrasco Hospital and later in psychiatry. I also learned to play violin and cello and formed the Rosario Chamber Orchestra. At that time I was not sure whether to become a musician, a pathologist or a psychiatrist. In the end I opted for the latter.

In Rosario I worked as a psychiatrist in various hospitals. I also trained in social psychology and psychodrama and had my first experience at the receiving end of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

I have always been interested in psychodrama. Psychodrama is a method of group psychotherapy developed by Jacob Moreno (1889-1974). Issues are not only discussed but also enacted like in a theater. Some enactments can be very moving and artistic.

Certainly, psychodrama is a powerful therapeutic tool. Throughout the years I attended workshops conducted by famous psychodramatists from different countries (including Anne Ancelin Schützenberger, Marcia Karp, Hernán Kesselman, Gretel Leutz, Zerka Moreno, Jaime Rojas Bermudez and Monica Zuretti to name just a few).

Over the years, I have directed psychodrama groups with mixed clinical populations as well as psychotics in hospitals. I have also run a group in Milan (Italy) with a steady membership over a period of 8 years, in which I combined a group analytic model with psychodrama, dance and other forms of creative expression and bodily techniques.

I had also been interested in community leaving and visited regularly Comunidad del Sur in Montevideo (Uruguay). This was a group of libertarian socialists who run a cooperative, a printing workshop and a publishing house, and shared daily life according to principles of equality and mutual aid. The group, founded in the 1950´s still exists although its heydays have long passed. I have also paid short visits to other communities in Argentina, Belgium, England, Italy, Sweden and the United States.

In the 1970`s I visited therapeutic communities and psychiatric hospitals in Spain, Italy and Switzerland. I became particularly interested in a movement called “Democratic Psychiatry” which was pioneered by Franco Basaglia in Italia. The purpose of this movement was to minimize the social stigma, social isolation and disempowerment that people diagnosed as mentally ill suffered, by promoting progressive reforms

Later, I was lucky enough to work in Shenley Hospital (now closed) which at the time was a very progressive psychiatric hospital. It was designed on a villa system where patients were housed in small homely units spread on a beautiful parkland environment. Each villa had its own treatment modality and type of patients: admission, in-patient psychotherapy, etc. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy, family therapy and psychodrama were part of the repertoire of therapeutic interventions. Some villas were run as therapeutic communities.

Some well known psychoanalysts worked at Shenley. The hospital organised postgraduate conferences and important psychoanalysts and group analysts, such as Anna Freud and Heinz Wolff, came to lecture. An important member of the staff was Desmond Bardon (1913 – 1999), who had an active interest in puerperal psychosis and depression and created the first mother-and-baby unit in the UK. Also David Cooper (1931 – 1986), a noted theorist and leader of the so-called anti-psychiatry movement, run the famous “villa 21”. He moved away from Shenley before I arrived but he left an influence in the hospital culture. Shenley was one of the first hospitals in the UK to fight against the stigma of being mentally ill.

As a Shenley doctor, I had to practice general medicine (since I had to carry out a medical assessment on every admission and act as a general practitioner every time an in-patient fell ill) but also gained experience in the fields of general acute psychiatry, psychosis, psychogeriatrics (including dementia), forensic psychiatry, personality disorders as well as individual, group, couple and family therapy and home visits. There was no area of adult psychiatry in which I had not been involved in that context. Shenley had a culture of team work and patients were meticulously discussed in interdisciplinary staff meetings.

While working in Shenley, I was given time to attend training sessions in psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic and take the Qualifying Course at the Institute of Group Analysis. In Britain, the Institute of Group Analysis is the main provider of training for group therapists in the UK. I was fortunate to have Malcolm Pines, Robin Skynner and Dennis Brown as some of my teachers. As part of my training I was a patient in a twice-weekly therapy group conducted by Lionel Kreeger.

I also participated in large group sessions, conducted by Pat de Mare (1916 – 2008)), the founder of this method. These are groups formed by more than 25 members. I have also run large groups myself in hospital settings and in group analytic workshops.

Moreover, I tried to learn as much as I could about other methods of psychotherapy and I participated in workshops run by William Schutz (encounter groups), Alexander Lowen (bionergetics) and Gerdan Boyensen (biodynamic psychology).

While attending seminars at the Tavistock Clinic, I met John Bowlby (1907 - 1990). Subsequently I had weekly supervision with him for a period of ten years. John Bowlby, a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, developed attachment theory. Briefly, attachment theory is an emerging paradigm within psychoanalysis that underlines the fundamental role that close and durable relationships (particularly between parents and children) have in personality development and emotional life. Bowlby concludedthat the infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his parents (or permanent parental substitutes) in which to find satisfaction and enjoyment, and that not to do so may have negative, significant and irreversible consequences for the individual´s future mental health.

Because of the fact that Bowlby proposed some fundamental changes in the psychoanalytic theory originally formulated by Freud and Klein, a significant section of the psychoanalytic community turned against him. For me, Bowlby´s ideas made sense and under his guidance I started to apply them in my clinical work with good results.