The Casale Monferrato Case: A Psychoanalytic Intervention Between Social and Individual Catastrophe

In this paper, I delve into the conscious and unconscious repercussions of the risk associated with residing in a contaminated site due to industrial pollution. Specifically, I focus on the experience of the population of Casale Monferrato, deeply traumatized by both the significant number of deaths resulting from occupational and environmental exposure to asbestos, and by decades of sustenance from the Eternit factory, which ultimately brought pollution and death. My work in Casale Monferrato since 2006 has allowed me to highlight how the psychoanalytic approach enables exploration of the relationship between psychological well-being and the quality of the living environment, while addressing both individual and collective dimensions of the socio-environmental catastrophe. Over the years, I have also designed and implemented psychoanalytic clinical interventions in the field aimed at patients affected by asbestos-related diseases, their families, and the entire Casale Monferrato population exposed to contamination risk.