CORRAO, FRANCESCO (1922-1994)

Francesco Corrao was an Italian physician, psychoanalyst, president of the Società Psicoanalitica Italiana (SPI) [Italian Psychoanalytic Society] from 1969 to 1974, and founder of psychoanalytic centers in Rome and Palermo. He was born in Palermo on December 14, 1922, and died in Rome on April 23, 1994.

Corrao studied medicine but was also interested in philosophy, especially epistemology and Greek thought. He studied psychoanalysis with Alessandra Wolf Stomersee, Princess of Lampedusa, who, after her marriage, moved to Palermo during the late thirties. It was Corrao, a member of the SPI from 1952 and a training analyst at the institute founded by Nicola Perrotti, who was entrusted with the task of bringing psychoanalysis to Sicily when Lampedusa settled in Rome.

Introduced by Lampedusa to the work of Melanie Klein, Corrao became interested in her ideas as expressed in the work of Wilfred Bion, especially their application to the psychoanalysis of group activities. Convinced of Bion's importance, he had him translated into Italian and worked to introduce his ideas in Italy, organizing seminars in Rome during the seventies. In 1969, colleagues and students met with Corrao in Rome, forming the "Pollaiolo" circle to train members in analysis. The Pollaiolo circle published a review entitled Gruppo e Funzione Analitica, which has recently been replaced by Koinos.

Corrao's writings have been collected into a volume entitled Modelli psicoanalitici: Mito, Passione, Memoria. He devoted much time to the institutional renewal of the SPI, introducing new bylaws (1974) while he was president and creating regional centers for psychoanalysis, including one in Palermo (1976), where he organized the annual scientific seminars, Colloquia of Palermo.

Anna Maria Accerboni

See also: Italy.

Bibliography

Corrao, F. (1992). Modelli psicoanalitici. Mito passione memoria. Laterza: Roma-Bari.