Un-Certainty as a Pragmatic Resource for Psychiatric Argumentation: a Diachronical and Diatextual Approach

Psychiatry is the science that aims to propose plausible theories in the description and explanation of “body-mind” pathologies. Since also the modern institution of science produces a type of discourse aimed at reducing human insecuritas through a progressive falsification of conjectures on how things are actually, it seems very important to monitor the discursive construction of un-certainty about an extremely elusive object such as the abnormality of psychic functioning. In the light of this, the present paper aims to identify what changes are traceable in the argumentative structure of un-certainty in the psychiatric scientific communication by the British Journal of Psychiatry in its life span as well as how the construction of socially “credible” authorship profiles evolves. The randomly-selected 90 articles from the 160 years of the BJP life cycle were analyzed through various interpretative apparatuses, by practicing both bottom-up and top-down approaches. Indeed, in the perspective of cultural and discursive psychology, un-certainty is a multidimensional discursive construction which is not attributable to the psycho-linguistic level of the utterance in its entirety, but to the meta-pragmatic dimension of enunciation. The identified rhetoric, which collects the groupings of enunciative profiles, sees the researcher evolving between the explorer’s attempts, the investigator’s inquiries and the critical rigor of the technician

The Humble Charisma of a White-Dressed Man in a Desert Place: Pope Francis’ Communicative Style in the Covid-19 Pandemic

The context of deep uncertainty, fear, and “social distancing” characterizing the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a need for cultural anchorages and charismatic leaders who may conjointly and effectively support human beings, strengthen their identity, and empower social commitment. In this perspective, the charismatic leadership of Pope Francis, which is widely shared not only within the religious world, may play a crucial role in facing emergency with existential reasons and psychological resources. The general aim of this work is to shed light on the communicative features of the charismatic leadership of Pope Francis during the pandemic emergency; in order to better understand his effectiveness, we analyzed both the core issues and his multimodal body signals in the global TV event of the Universal Prayer with the Urbi et Orbi Blessing. The multimodal and discursive analyses of the homily enabled us to define the “humble” charisma of the Pope, which is based upon on authentic and informal presence, manifested emotional signals (and, in particular commotion) showing features of equity and familiarity. From a discursive point of view, the common and overarching affiliation is constructed through a multiple focus on the “we” pronoun, which is constructed through socio-epistemic rhetoric. The results show how this integrated methodological perspectives, which is multimodal and discursive, may offer meaningful pathways detection of effective and persuasive signals

La costruzione sociale delle malattie rare: posizionamenti identitari e negoziazione di senso

La diagnosi di malattia rara in età evolutiva costituisce un punto di svolta destabilizzante nella storia delle famiglie, sia rispetto al “prima” – la vita condotta fino a quel momento – sia rispetto a ciò che viene considerato “normale”, dai modelli culturali vigenti (Emiliani, Palaret & Mellotti, 2010). I genitori tendono a costruire rappresentazioni sociali (Moscovici, 1961; Jodelet, 2009) sulla malattia del proprio figlio, intese come forme di costruzione sociale della realtà, sistemi di significato. Il presente studio ha l’obiettivo di approfondire l’esperienza dei genitori con figli affetti da malattia rara, cogliendo il significato e i quadri interpretativi che la disabilità assume per l’identità genitoriale, nell’ambito di una prospettiva di ricerca culturale (Mazzara, 2007) e discorsiva (Mininni, 2013). Sono state realizzate interviste narrative semi-strutturate rivolte a 5 coppie di genitori di bambini affetti da malattia rara. I testi sono stati analizzati mediante una doppia procedura analitica: Analisi del contenuto, con l’ausilio del software T-Lab (Lancia, 2004) e Analisi Diatestuale, con l’ausilio del Modello SAM (Mininni, 2013). I primi risultati mostrato peculiarità tematiche e retoriche nella costruzione di posizionamenti identitari in base al genere: discorsi delle madri tendono a rappresentare la malattia come sofferenza emotiva, nei confronti della quale indossano i panni della “mamma guerriera”; i discorsi dei padri, invece, la rappresentano per lo più come ostacolo ad una vita “normale” e la posizione enunciativa oscilla tra difficoltà nel fronteggiare le problematiche e forza d’animo nel superarle

Informazione televisiva e formazione politica

Formare dei giovani allo studio delle dinamiche politiche significa innanzitutto ripensare la politica non come occupazione di cariche e fonte di arricchimento ma come momento di crescita sociale e di cambiamento, come prospettiva di reali processi di democratizzazione e senso di responsabilità, come esercizio della cittadinanza e delle attività che essa implica

La Religione Come Risorsa Discorsiva Nell'esperienza di Invecchiamento | [Religion As Discoursive Resource In Aging Experience]

The cultural and discursive approach to aging studies suggests on one side that it's impossible to identify universal evolutive pathways, because of the build-up of different experiences that make every person the only one; on the other side, that it's necessary turning to a dialogical perspective, so that the different voices about aging experience can find their appropriate place. In order to regain a neglected dimension - not only in gerontology - having important potentials for subjective well-being, our purpose is to deepen the way religion can be a resource of meaning in the course of life. From narrative interview with Catholic and converted to Buddhism aged people, it emerges the strength of individual discursive positioning: both in constant evolutive pathways and in switch-marked life experiences, religious believers can find in different religious believes and practices the answers to essential questions about their life, an anchor to face the present and the future, a "social escort" for their well-being