The journal

Metapsychologica is an independent publishing project which was started in 2019 as an initiative of the School of Freudian Psychoanalysis.  The objective of this journal is to build a new naturalistic paradigm which can bring together different areas of research in order to understand the important processes fundamental to human subjectivity and living in general. For this reason the journal has opened a space for multidisciplinary discussion.

The call

The neurobiological paradigm is currently tasked with explaining the phenomena connected to hunger but these processes are so complex that they require new and broader points of view upon which a properly understood Freudian metapsychology can cast light. Psychoanalysis considers hunger to be a fundamental self preservation drive and this alone makes it central to any psychological thinking which seeks to question the origins of subjectivity. In fact more than any other drive, it is hunger which sets in motion the psychic apparatus, making it confront the external world and setting up the first basic connections with reality. In as much as the physiological dimension of hunger has rarely been studied from medical and neuropsychological points of view, psychoanalysis requires that it be thought about in a broader framework which considers not only how it works but also how it acts in the Ego formation within both an intersubjective framework and within the construction of a single subject.

The Freudian approach therefore requires connecting study into the source (i.e. the biological mechanisms in their plurality) likewise the drive (i.e. the value of psychological pressure this takes on) as well as the aims and objects concerning it (therefore the development stages and the specific issues which could be encountered at different phases of life and in the disorders).

 

Furthermore it should also be constantly assessed regarding the interaction it has with the other drives whether they be erotic in nature or related to the drive of death and destruction.

As a result we invite contributions which assist with a multidisciplinary study of hunger, with particular focus on:

  • Long term psychological effects originating from feeding problems in infancy;
  • The study of psycho-physiological mechanisms connected with hunger in its normality and pathology;
  • The in-depth study into the role of hunger in the development of the mind from phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives;
  • The study of particular issues related to the sexualisation of hunger, for example some feeding perversions or typical disorders like anorexia;
  • The study of particular issues related to the mixture of the death drive with the self-preservation instincts, as could be hypothesised in cases of carcinogenesis;
  • The attempts at a formal modelling of psychic processes related to hunger.

All contributions from different disciplines, which deal with the theme of hunger seeking to integrate the specific Freudian metapsychological approach will be evaluated.

The rules

All contributions presented to the journal must be unpublished; if they are accepted for publication they cannot be reproduced elsewhere without the prior consent of the editorial team.

All contributions will be peer-reviewed.

The maximum length of the contributions must be 13,000 words for texts in Italian and 12,000 words for texts in English.

The contributions which fail to meet the editing team’s criteria and which are not drafted according to the journal’s model will not be considered for publication. Further information is available on the following link:

https://www.scuoladipsicanalisifreudiana.it/en/metapsychologica/criteri-redazionali/

The deadline

All contributions must reach the editorial team by the 1st of April 2023.

Sending the paper

To send your contribution use this form or write an email to mailto:board@metapsychologica.it

Contacts and information