As always happens in human affairs, it is history that permits us to understand the present. Each story reflects, in certain respects, the arbitrary choice of the narrator; therefore, I shall talk about “my” C.O.I.R.A.G., in the hope that many colleagues will be able to identify with the path I have chosen. In the late sixties, psychiatry was influenced by and, in its turn, influenced the entire epochal change brought about by the crises, movements, struggles and new ethics that radically transformed social existence. Group epistemology arrived just at the right time. Institutional Analysis, Therapeutic Communities (English, French, Italian), Group Psychotherapy: so much effort to organize ideas and procedures capable of entering the flow of the “crisis”! We were young and in search of “good teachers”, reliable leaders, who by evolving new theories and taking on new commitments, provided the charisma that inspired so much confidence in us. There is no point in mentioning names, unless to stress that all these personalities, with their mature attitude and acceptance of social responsibilities, have been the source of our development through out the years (S.H. Foulkes, W. Bion, Th. Main, M. Johns, F. Napolitani, D. Napolitani, L. Ancona, F. Vanni, F. Corrao, G. Pagliarani, P. Perrotti, S. Resnik, Mr. and Mrs. Lemoine, and the many others who are constantly in our minds). Developments in Italian psychotherapy resulted in various Schools/Associations springing up around these teachers, between 1970 and 1980. We knew and respected each other, but we each chose to go our own way, experiencing a certain difficulty in making the transition from personalistic, ground-breaking charisma to new confederative structures governed by the creativity of diverse intergenerational dynamics. As is often the case, it was an "outsider" who broke the spell and issued a new challenge. Adriano Ossicini, psychoanalyst and senator, was already engaged in a battle to establish a Psychologists' Register, an “impossible” task due to the insurmountable opposition existing between the various Schools of Psychotherapy. It was Ossicini, spurred on by a resolute, progressive Fabrizio Napoletani, who arranged the first meeting between group analytic psychotherapy societies at the end of 1981. I remember that meeting, which I had the good fortune to attend. Fabrizio and Diego Napolitani, Leonardo Ancona, Francesco Corrao, Paolo Perrotti, Ferdinando Vanni and Ossicini himself were all present and, quite miraculously, everyone grasped the profound significance of Ossicini’s proposal. Thus the C.O.I.R.A.G. was founded, in 1982, as a Confederation of Organizations, each of which maintains complete institutional autonomy while sharing the common aim of developing increasingly interactive relationships in the scientific field, particularly in the congressional and publishing sectors. Over the years, various societies have joined the C.O.I.R.A.G., adding to its wealth of clinical and scientific knowledge considerably. I especially remember the impetus the Confederation received from the Societies specializing in psychodrama (S.I.P.s.A. and a branch of A.P.R.A.G.I. ). Until 1990, the activities of the C.O.I.R.A.G. were characterized by Conferences and a continual broadening of reciprocal knowledge, which also became the basis for friendship and mutual respect through our striving to foster generational transitions in a broader yet more closely-knit scenario than that of the individual Confederated Organizations. Then Ossicini’s dream came true. Law 56/89, with its famous Article 3 on Private Schools of Psychotherapy, was promulgated. And the C.O.I.R.A.G. was faced with a crucial choice: should it request ministerial recognition for each Confederated Organization or stake everything on a single National School. It was the moment of truth. Girolamo Lo Verso, the then President, provided the incentive and enthusiasm that enabled the assembly to rise to this new challenge. Ministerial recognition was immediately obtained (December 1993) for the C.O.I.R.A.G. School, the only truly national Italian school of psychotherapy training. The School was composed of four Institutes (Turin, director Maurizio Gasseau; Milan/Padua, director G. Marco Pauletta d’Anna; Rome, director Raffaele Menarini, followed by Marco Zanasi; Palermo, director Gaetano Venza). Girolamo Lo Verso was, and still is, the Head. The teaching work of the Confederated Organizations in each area is collected by the Institutes, which makes the associative aspect more disciplined and organic. Organizing a unique school and administering it with dignity and efficiency was an arduous task, and this is where my conception of the C.O.I.R.A.G. as a fraternal network demonstrated, and still does, all its institutive potential. In autumn 1998, the first eighty-four specialists graduated from the C.O.I.R.A.G., all of whom are responsible to their respective Confederated Organizations and answerable for the future of the parent organization, which has yet to be written. Our intense networking activity has allowed us to organize a new organic associative structure that co-ordinates all the scientific activities of the Confederation, it is the Study and Research Centre (Secretary, Renato de Polo). A strongly unifying development that was inconceivable all those years ago. Now, finally, after many long years of waiting marked by patience and trust we have succeeded, on the initiative of Franco Fasolo when he was President, in conceiving and realizing the project of the Magazine, whose first editor Franco Di Maria is responsible for the editorial concept and publication. The magazine will become the third large transversal network of the C.O.I.R.A.G. (along with the School and the Study and Research Centre) through the constant reshuffling of associates who, by focusing on the continual evolution of the Confederated Organizations, will nurture that “common identity” which is the font of the C.O.I.R.A.G.’s innovative strength. The Confederation’s excellent track record has allayed fears and suspicions, and it is now possible to push back frontiers and explore new territories where group-analytic epistemology proves particularly fruitful: ethnopsychiatry, gender identity (male and female), biological disease, therapeutic communities, day hospitals, teacher training, and the restructuring of Psychiatric Services at the administrative level. The numerous books and articles published are a testimony of the wealth of research and culture that forms the “C.O.I.R.A.G. matrix”. One could well say, and many highly respected colleagues and foreign associations (Group-Analytic Society, I.A.G.P., E.A.T.G.A., EGATIN) will testify to this, that our long journey has resulted in the development of an “Italian approach” to group-analysis, psychodrama, family psychotherapy and psycho-socio-analysis. This is the C.O.I.R.A.G., born of our teachers’ ability to galvanize us with their charisma without becoming isolated by their aggregative power. I, we, are enormously grateful to them, particularly now that we are launching the Magazine, which is another gamble, another challenge. It is up to us and to our readers to see that this Magazine passes on, in Italy and Abroad, the C.O.I.R.A.G. legacy of which we should all be proud, and deservedly so. (*) Professore di ruolo di Psicoterapia, Dirigente di II livello del Servizio di Psicoterapia Familiare e di Gruppo. Istituto di Psichiatria e Psicologia. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia. Roma, Past Presidente C.O.I.R.A.G. (Confederazione delle Organizzazioni Italiane per la Ricerca Analitica nei Gruppi)
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