A case of psychological clinical intervention through the crisis of parenthood

Abstract

The article aims to describe the psychological function developed within a Service of Clinical Psychology of the Public Healt Syestem of a city of southern Italy, place where the writer opereted for three years. The paper shows the process of construction and development of  s service from the request of social services to supportparenting skills of couples whose ability to take care of their children is considered to be in crisis. The article reconstructs the evolution of the models that have historically organized the relationship between Welfare, National Health System and the problems of the family, defining the methods and goals of the intervention. The construct of parenthood is questioned  giving space to the use of a psychological model able to read the symbolic processes within social relations. The clinical cases presented, collect reflections and interpretive hypotheses about the conflict within the social mandate and cultures of the institutions involved in the intervention, the court in the role of ensuring coexistence, the social welfare services in the function of monitoring and clinical psychology in integrative function and development of the client. I

At the end is propose a reflecion on the concept of family in Italy, based on the duties and respectability, and their clinical implication.