Some considerations on gratuitousness.

Abstract

n the field of psychology there are often initiatives offering free psychological counselling to citizens, some of these are even promoted by the Psychologists’ Regional Association. More and more often, single professionals and professionals’ associations offer free psychological counselling as a preliminary step to psychotherapy.

Although free psychological counselling has already been discussed (Scabini & Rossi, 2000; Petrella, 2001), the effects on psychological practice and on social representation of psychologists seem to be underestimated. This is a good reason for further investigating the phenomenon.