The societies we live in struggle to give value to dissent and critics. Ideologies that lead to organizing society differently from ours are attacked. However, the plurality of world views, values, beliefs, and behaviors that characterize social life is certainly something that can promote our cultural development, if the diversity can be tolerated and integrated. Nevertheless, such plurality can also be a source of conflict, which, if not properly managed, can even lead to hatred and violence, when the diversity is perceived as a threat.

In psychotherapy practice, we are often confronted with such phenomena. Early research first associated antisocial behavior with experiences of neglect or deprivation suffered by the patient. Others saw the primary source of hate in the death instinct and in the violence of Super-Ego. Research has highlighted the potential source of positive psychic development behind antisocial acts and aggression. More contemporary approaches ascribe interpersonal conflicts, hate and violence to the activation of the aversive motivational system. This system is in continuous interaction with the rest of the personality and can support the exploratory-assertive motivational system. The usefulness of putting the "psychic vitality" coming from aversiveness at the service of the patient's ego to promote its development is also underlined by some clinical studies. In psychotherapy research, the literature highlights that clinical impasses are often caused by the therapists' "goodwill" to help the patient "overcome" a (supposed) maladaptive pattern. This attitude pushes the therapist to continue to insist on the same psychic theme, causing a defensive escalation of the patient and subsequently, of the therapeutic dyad, which may lead to premature interruption of therapy. Conversely, in other cases, the reason for the escalation derives from a therapeutic oversight, a relational exchange within which the therapist does not seem to empathically grasp the current theme of the session.

It has been widely demonstrated that poor quality of relational experiences in the course of our development can hinder or impede the individual's ability to learn to cope with diversity, tolerate it, represent it, and use it for better regulation of emotions and interpersonal relations. This in turn can potentially impair a person’s psychosocial functioning.

How can we manage conflicts, hate and violence within the small world of our consulting room? How can we handle them to promote an appropriate psychotherapeutic change process? This Research Topic aims to explore such questions underlying the assumption that the ability to regulate conflicts within interpersonal relationships requires the ability to feel, identify, and represent internal states. The ability to do so, particularly regarding hate and violence, is at the basis of every good-outcome psychotherapy. In fact, within our small world of the consulting room, there is space for all the psychic aspects existing also in our societies. Hence, promoting a scientific reflection on the ways of identifying, handling, and transforming the relational dynamics characterizing conflicts, hate and violence within psychotherapy can, hopefully, be considered as the contribution of our discipline to promote social change and justice, achieving more peaceful coexistence between the different societies existing in the world.

This Research Topic aims to collect innovative papers dealing with conflicts, hate, and violence within psychotherapy. We welcome empirical investigations, review articles, clinical contributions, as well as contributions relating to child, adult, couple, family, and group psychotherapy. Topics of interest may focus on:
• The psychotherapy process, outcome, or process outcome including variables associated with conflicts, hatred, violence, and aggression;
• Relational ruptures and resolutions and their association with hate, violence, and aggression;
• Interpretations or comments by the therapist perceived as too intrusive or judgmental, and the following repairing process;
• Antisocial acts within psychotherapy, their identification, handling, and transformation;
• Studies on psychotherapy with detained patients;
• Studies on psychotherapy with radicalized patients;
• Studies focusing on passive-aggressive or provocative personality dimensions that elicit violence;
• The dynamics between provocation and violence and defusing strategies;
• The link between violent enactments and specific personality disorders;
• Psychotherapy of victims of political persecution (e.g. political refugees);

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Conflicts, Hate and Violence in Psychotherapy

Topic Coordinator