Aldo Carotenuto, analytic psychologist, member of the American Psychological Association, president of the Associazione di Psicologia e Letteratura and professor of psychology of the personality at the University of Rome I “La Sapienza”, has produced over thirty books, some of which have been translated into the major European languages as well as into Japanese. In one of his more famous works, A Secret Symmetry: Sabina Spielrein Between Jung and Freud (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982), he reconstructs, through his discovery of some correspondence between Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein--Jung's patient and subsequently a psychoanalyst in her turn--a fascinating chapter in the history of psychoanalysis. Other works by Aldo Carotenuto include: Eros and Pathos (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1989); Kant's Dove (Wilmette, Ill.: Chiron Publications, 1991); The Difficult Art (Wilmette, Ill.: Chiron Publications,1992); Integrazione della personalità (Milan: Bompiani, 1992); I sotterranei dell'anima (Milan: Bompiani, 1993); Riti e miti della seduzione (Milan: Bompiani, 1994); Jung e la cultura del XX secolo (Milan: Bompiani,1995); To Love to Betray (Wilmette, Ill.: Chiron Publications, 1996); Le lacrime del male (Milan: Bompiani, 1996); L'eclissi dello sguardo (Milan: Bompiani, 1997); Attraversare la vita (Milan: Bompiani, 1999); L'anima delle donne (Milan: Bompiani, 2001); Rites and Myths of Seduction (Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications, 2002).[Via Gallonio 8 - 00161 Roma - Italy]

Amy Cohen is a psychoanalyst working in Paris. She pursued graduate studies in comparative literature at Columbia University and completed her training in clinical psychology at the University of Paris VII. [amyc@ccr.jussieu.fr]

Johannes Cremerius (1918-2002), M.D., neuropsychiatrist, internist, and International Psychoanalytical Association psychoanalyst, was professor of psychotherapy and psychosomatics at the Universities of Giessen and Freiburg (Germany). With Gaetano Benedetti, he founded the School of Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy in Milan, of which he was honorary president until the end of his life, and in which he carried out a constant activity of guidance, training and supervision.
Author of a great many scientific publications, he edited for the Italian publisher Boringhieri the works of K. Abraham.

Judith Feher-Gurewich, born in 1949, is a practicing psychoanalyst in Cambridge, MA, and the director of the "Lacan Seminar" at the Center for the Humanities at Harvard University. She is a member of "Espace Analytique - Association de Formation Psychanalytique et de Recherches Freudiennes” (Paris), and an affiliated member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc. She is the editor, with Michel Tort, of Lacan and the New Wave of American Psychoanalyisis (New York: Other Press, 1996). She has written numerous articles, both in English and French, on the relation between psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory and the social sciences [11 Reservoir St. - Cambridge, MS 02138 - USA]

Marco Francesconi, M.D., a specialist in neurology and psychiatry, is a psychotherapist, associated member of th Association of Psychoanalytical Studies in Milan, and professor of dynamic psychology in the Psychology Department of the University of Pavia. He has carried out clinical psychiatric and psychotherapeutic work in various institutions and is currently working as a psychotherapist in Pavia. He is the author of articles on neurology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He has studied the construction of identities within gender differences, parental functions as interpersonal and intrapsychic dynamics, unconscious problems underlying bioethical decisions, and developmental thought models in precocious mental states and during adolescence. His published works include: “Crescere maschi e femmine, oggi”, with D. Scotto di Fasano, Pedagogika, n°16 2000; "Procreazione assistita e nuove forme di genitorialità: aspetti psicodinamici ed etici della funzione parentale", in T. Todros e F. Vasara, Nascere nel 2000. Riflessioni per una moderna programmazione (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2001); "Perché il teatro a scuola? Alfabetizzazione e rappresentazione delle emozioni", with D. Scotto di Fasano, in R. Di Rago, ed., Il teatro della scuola. Riflessioni, indagini ed esperienze (Milan: F. Angeli 2001); "IN-CHIOSTRO. Intimità dei pensieri come preludio all'incontro”, in E. Salvadori and P. Pulina, eds., Il piacere e il mestiere di scrivere (Como-Pavia: IBIS, 2001) [marco.francesconi@unipv.it]

René Girard >was born in the southern French city of Avignon on Christmas day in 1923. Between 1943 and 1947, he studied in Paris at the École des Chartres, an institution for the training of archivists and historians, where he specialized in medieval history. In 1947 he went to Indiana University on a year's fellowship and eventually made almost his entire career in the United States. He completed a PhD in history at Indiana University in 1950 but also began to teach literature, the field in which he would first make his reputation. He taught at Duke University and at Bryn Mawr before becoming a professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. In 1971 he went to the State University of New York at Buffalo for five years, returned to Johns Hopkins, and then finished his academic career at Stanford University, where he taught between 1981 and his retirement in 1995. Among his books, in English translation: Deceit, Desire and the Novel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965); Violence and the Sacred (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977); Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987); The Scapegoat (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986); A Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991)[mgirardl@ix.netcom.com]

Viktor Mazin is a practicing psychoanalyst and lecturer in the theory of psychoanalysis at the East-European Institute of Psychoanalysis (St. Petersburg). He is founder of Freud's Dreams Museum in St. Petersburg., editor-in-chief of the arts and science journal Kabinet, editor of “Acta Psychiatrica” (Crimea) and “Psychoanalytic Bulletinâ” (Russia), Associate Editor of “Journal for Lacanian Studies”. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the theory of psychoanalysis, deconstruction and visual arts, such as: Yufit and: representation of death (St. Petersburg: Inapress, 1998); Cabinet of the deep experience: Freud, Moses, Michelangelo, with P.Pepperstein (St. Petersburg: Inapress, 2000); The interpretation of dreams in the era of mass communication (in print); Critics of the metaphysics of presence in Freud and Derrida (in print). Translator from French and English (of Zizek, R.Salecl, F.Guattari, B.Stiegler, L.Althusser, J.-F.Lyotard, M.Molnar). [ppkab@dux.ru]

Maurizio Meloni is a PhD student at the University of Catania. A Girard scholar, his current research focuses on the therapeutic-affective aspects of various ideologies, with particular attention towards religious ideologies. He has written on globalization for numerous Italian magazines and newspapers, including essays, in collaboration with other, such as: AA.VV., Voci per un Lessico postfordista (Voices for a Post-Fordian Lexicon) (Milan: Feltrinelli, 2001) [z.meloni@tiscali.it]

Giorgio Mosconi, psychologist and member of the Centro Studi di Psicologia e Letteratura, conducts a seminar on the psychology of the mass media for the Department of the Psychology of the Personality at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. [g.mosconi@agora.stm.it]

Roberto P. Neuburger, M.D., psychoanalyst, practices in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is staff psychiatrist of the Hospital General de Agudos, "Dr. I. Pirovano"; former Resident in the Psychopathology Department, Policl’nico "G. Aráoz Alfaro”, Lanœs; and former member of the Freudian School of Buenos Aires. He publishes papers in: Psicoanálisis y el Hospital (Buenos Aires), Inscribir el Psicoanálisis (Costa Rica), Papers of the Freudian School of Melbourne (Australia), L'Information Psychiatrique (Paris), Zeitschrift für Psychoanalytische Theorie und Praxis (Frankfurt/M), Kliniki Psykhodinamiki (Athens), Clinical Studies (New York), Vyestnik (St. Petersburg). [rneuburger@intramed.net.ar]

Elisabeth Roudinesco, historian, psychoanalyst and writer, was born in 1944. She was a member of the Ecole Freudienne de Paris (1969-1981). She teaches History at the University of Paris VII, and at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She is Vice-president of the International Society of the History of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. Her published works include: L'Inconscient et ses Lettres (Paris: Mame, 1975); Jacques Lacan & Co. A History of Psychoanalysis in France (London: Free Association, 1990; Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press, 1990); Théroigne de Méricourt. Une femme mélancolique sous la Révolution (Paris: Ed. du Seuil, 1989; Engl.transl., London: Verso 1991); Jacques Lacan. Esquisse d' une vie, histoire d' un système de pensée (Paris: Fayard, 1993; Engl. transl., New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1996); Généalogies (Paris: Fayard, 1994); with Michel Plon, Dictionnaire de la Psychanalyse (Paris: Fayard, 1999) [89, Avenue Denfert-Rochereau - 75014 Paris]

Mark Solmsis Honorary Lecturer in Neurosurgery at St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine, Consultant Neuropsychologist at the Anna Freud Centre, and Lecturer in Psychology at University College in London. He is an Associate Member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, Honorary Member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Member of the British Neuropsychological Society. He has published widely in both neuroscientific and psychoanalytic journals. He is co-editor of the interdisciplinary journal Neuro-Psychoanalysis, and co-chairperson of the International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Society. He received the "International Psychiatrist" award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2001, and his book Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis (with Karen Kaplan-Solms) won NAAP's Gradiva Award (Best Book, Science Category) in 2001. His publications include also A Moment of Transition: Two Neuroscientific Articles by Sigmund Freud (London: Karnac 1990) and The Neuropsychology of Dreams: A Clinico-Anatomical Study (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997).

Mario Trevi, an analytic psychologist, was a founding member (in 1960) of the Associazione italiana per lo studio della psicologia analitica, of the Centro italiano di psicologia analitica in 1966, and is a regular member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology. He has published various studies in general psychology and criticism of Jungian theory and was director of the journal Metaxù which deals with research on symbols. His published works include: Studi sull'Ombra with Augusto Romano (Venice: Marsilio, 1975); Interpretatio duplex (Rome: Borla, 1986); Metafore del simbolo (Milan: Cortina, 1986); Per uno junghismo critico (Milan: Bompiani, 1987); L'altra lettura di Jung (Milan: Cortina, 1988); Riprendere Jung with Marco Innamorati (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2000) [Via Mercalli 11 - 00197 Roma - Italy]

Francisco J. Varela (1946-2001) held a doctoral degree in biological sciences from Harvard University (1970). His interests centered on the biological mechanisms of cognitive phenomena and human consciousness, both at the level of experimental research and conceptual foundations. He was Director of Research at CNRS (National Council for Scientific Research) and a member of CREA (Cognitive and Epistemological Sciences) at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris (LENA - Neurosciences Cognitives et Imagerie Cérébrale). Among his books: Principles of Biological Autonomy (Elsevier/North-Holland: New York, 1979); with H. Maturana Autopoiesis and Cognition: The realization of the living (D. Reidel: Boston, 1980); The Tree of Knowledge: A new look at the biological roots of human understanding (Boston: Shambhala/New Scien0ce Library, 1987); with E. Thompson and E. Rosch The Embodied Mind: Cognitive science and human experience (Cambridge, USA: MIT Press, 1991).As editor, he published: Comparative Neurobiology of Vision in Vertebrates, Proceedings of the International Symposium, November 1982; with J.P. Dupuy Understanding Origin: Scientific Ideas on the Origin of Life, Mind, and Society (Stanford University International Symposium, 1992); with W.Stein Thinking About Biology: An introduction to Theoretical Biology (Series on Complexity, Addision-Wesley, NJ); with J.Shear “The View from Within: First-Person Methodologies in the Study of Consciousness”, Special Issue of Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6(2-3), 1999.

Silvia Vegetti Finzi is professor of Psychoanalysis in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pavia, Italy. She has played an important intellectual role within the Italian feminist movement, in particular through her contributions to the activities of the Virginia Woolf Cultural Center in Rome and the Centro Documentazione Donna in Florence. Her published works include: Storia della psicoanalisi (Milan: Mondadori, 1990); Mothering (New York: Guilford Press, 1996); Ein Versprechen auf Ewig (Berlin: Rowohlt, 1995); Volere un figlio (Milan: Mondadori, 1997). With others: Beyond Equality and Difference (London: Routledge, 1992); The Lonely Mirror. Italian Perspectives on Feminist Theory (London: Routledge, 1993); Freud and Judaism (London: Karnac Books, 1993); Le souffle des femmes (Paris: ACGF, 1996) [svf@galactica.it]

Eugene Webb is Professor Rmeritus of Comparative Religion and Comparative Literature in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, where he founded programs in both Comparative Religion and European Studies. He is the author of six books, including two books on the novels and plays of Samuel Beckett, as well as: The Dark Dove: The Sacred and Secular in Modern Literature (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1975); Eric Voegelin, Philosopher of History (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1981); Philosophers of Consciousness (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1988); The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1993). He also translated Jean-Michel Oughourlian’s The Puppet of Desire: The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession, and Hypnosis (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991). His current research project is a book on the psychology of religious thought [ewebb@u.washington.edu]