Sergio Benvenuto is a researcher in psychology and philosophy at the National Research Council (CNR) in Rome, Italy, and a psychoanalyst, president of ISAP (Institute for Advanced Studies in Psychoanalysis). He is a contributor to cultural journals such as Telos, Lettre Internationale (French, Spanish, Hungarian, Rumanian and Italian editions), Texte, RISS, Journal for Lacanian Studies, L’évolution psychiatrique. He has translated into Italian Jaques Lacan’s Séminaire XX:Encore. His books include Dicerie e pettegolezzi (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1999); Un cannibale alla nostra mensa (Bari: Dedalo, 2000); Perversioni. Sessualità, etica, psicoanalisi (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2005); Mechta Lacana, in Russian (Sankt Peterburg: Aleteija, 2006); Accidia. La passione dell’indifferenza (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2008); with A. Molino, On Freud’s Track’s (New York: Aronson, 2008). http://www.istc.cnr.it/doc/curricula/94ENCURtot2. rtf. [benvenuto.jep@mclink.it]

Lorenzo Bernini is Lecturer in Political Philosophy at the University of Verona. Among his books: Le pecore e il pastore. Critica, politica, etica nel pensiero di Michel Foucault (Naples: Liguori, 2008); with Olivia Guaraldo, eds, Differenza e relazione: L’ontologia dell’umano nel pensiero di Judith Butler e Adriana Cavarero (Verona: ombre corte, 2009) and Maschio e femmina Dio li creò!? Il sabotaggio transmodernista del binarismo sessuale (Milan: Il dito e la luna, 2010, forthcoming).

Federico Leoni is a contributor to many journals: “aut aut”, “Comprendre. Archives internationales pour l’anthropologie phénoménologiques”, “Chiasmi International”, “Paradosso”, “La società degli individui” among others. He has translated into Italian texts by Bergson, Maldiney, Minkowski. His books include: Follia come scrittura di mondo (Milan: Jaca Book, 2001); L’inappropriabile. Figure del limite in Kant (Milan: Mimesis, 2004); Senso e crisi. Del corpo, del ritmo, del mondo (Pisa: ETS, 2006); Habeas Corpus. Sei genealogie del corpo occidentale (Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2008). [federico.leoni@unimi.it]

Romano Màdera is professor of Moral Philosophy and Philosophical Practices at the University of Milano-Bicocca. He is a member of the Italian Association for Analytical Psychology (AIPA), the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP), and the Analytical Laboratory of Images (LAI), a professional association of sandplay analysts. He is the founder, with L. V. Tarca, of the Open Seminars of Philosophical Practices (University of Venice, University of Milano-Bicocca and other cities) and of Philo, School of Philosophical Practices. He also founded SABOF (Society for Philosophically Oriented Biographic Analysis). His writings include: Identità e feticismo (Milan: Moizzi, 1977); Dio il Mondo (Milan: Coliseum, 1989); L’alchimia ribelle (Bari: Palomar, 1997); C. G. Jung. Biografia e teoria (Milan: B. Mondadori, 1998); L’animale visionario (Milan: Il Saggiatore, 1999); with L. V. Tarca, Philosophy as Life Path (Milan: IPOC, 2007); Il nudo piacere di vivere (Milan: Mondadori, 2006).

Robert Pfaller is professor of philosophy at University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and member of “Neue WienerGruppe. Lacan-Schule and Forschungsgruppe Psychoanalyse”, Vienna. His published works include: Althusser - Das Schweigen im Text (München: Fink, 1997); ed. Interpassivität. Studien über delegiertes Genießen (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2000); Die Illusionen der anderen. Über das Lustprinzip in der Kultur (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2002), (ed.:) “Stop that Comedy! On the Subtle Hegemony of the Tragic in Our Culture” (in English and German, Vienna: sonderzahl, 2005); Das schmutzige Heilige und die reine Vernunft. Symptome der Gegenwartskultur (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 2008), Ästhetik der Interpassivität (Hamburg: phiilo fine arts, 2009) [Address: University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Department of Philosophy, Postgasse 6/2. Stock, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; robert.pfaller@uni-ak.ac.at]

Franco Scalzone, M.D. and psychiatrist, is Full Member of the SPI (Società Psicoanalitica Italiana, IPA). In the past he worked in psychiatric facilities at the National Health Service and is currently practising privately as a psychoanalyst. His fields of interest are the Hysterical Syndrome, Perversions, and the dialogue between Psychoanalysis, Neurosciences and Information Technology, Time in Psychoanalysis: he has dealt with these are issues in various articles and international or national Congresses. Among his publications: “Psico-bi-sessualità: elemento puro femminile, elemento puro maschile e ‘dis-posizione isterica’” [“Psycho-Bi- Sexuality: Pure Feminine Element, Pure Male Element and Hysterical Dis-Position”], Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 1, pp. 125-146, 2004; “Notes for a Dialogue between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience”, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 86, pp. 1405-142, 2005; “Freud: his (new) vision as reflected in the letter to Fliess of 1 January 1896”, Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 1, pp. 31-49, 2008. He has edited the following collections: with G. Zontini, Perché l’isteria? [Why Hysteria?] (Naples: Liguori, 1999); with G. Mattioli, Attualità dell’isteria. Malattia desueta o posizione originaria? [Hysteria as a Current Topic. Outworn Disease or Original Position?] (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2002); with G. Zontini, Tra psiche e cervello [Between Psyche and Brain] (Naples: Liguori, 2004); Perversione, Perversioni e Perversi [Perversion, Perversions and the Perverse] (Rome: Borla, 2009).

Rev. Vasileios Thermos, M.D., is an Orthodox theologian and priest from Greece. He is a psychiatrist and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist for children and adolescents in private practice. He holds a Ph.D. from the Theological School of Athens University on the psychology of priestly vocation. He has studied as a Visiting Scholar (1996-97) in Harvard Divinity School, Boston College, and Andover Newton. He has been engaged in training clergy and giving lectures, and has published many books and articles in Greek. He has published: His In Search of the Person: True and False Self according to Donald Winnicott and Saint Gregory Palamas (Montreal: Alexander Press, 2002), it has also been published in Russian. Also his article “Toward a Theological Understanding of Psychopathology and Therapy” is now being translated into English in “Psychiatry and Theology in Dialogue” (proceedings of a conference) (Montreal: Alexander Press).

Gemma Zontini, M.D. and psychiatrist, is a Full Member of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society (IPA). She is the Director of the Public Psychiatric Unit Ward at the Monaldi Hospital in Naples, Italy. She is the author of several scientific papers regarding mainly the “body” issue in psychoanalysis and, more in general, the “body-mind” relationship. Furthermore, she has often dealt with the relation between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience. She edited, together with F. Scalzone, two collections of papers: Perché l’isteria? (Napoli: Liguori, 1999) and Tra psiche e cervello (Napoli: Liguori, 2004). Dr. Zontini has written numerous articles among which: “Reflections on a Perverse Conduct” in F. Scalzone, editor, Perversione, Perversioni e Perversi (Roma: Borla, 2009).