Introduction When we face a situation perceived as threatening or traumatic, our nervous system automatically activates a series of protective responses that have deep roots in our evolution. These responses – commonly identified as fight, flight, freeze, and fawn – represent survival strategies that the body and mind have developed to ensure our safety (Porges, 2011; van der Kolk, 2014). While these reactions are adaptive in contexts of real danger, they can become problemat

Introduction Daniel Keyes's book The Minds of Billy Milligan (The Minds of Billy Milligan) represents one of the most controversial and controversial texts in the history of clinical and forensic psychology. Published in 1981, the volume tells the true story of Billy Milligan, the first American defendant acquitted of insanity based on a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID), then known as multiple personality disorder. Keyes's work lies in liminal territory betwe

Article written in collaboration with  @donatellabevacqua_psicologa Grief as a Complex Neuropsychological Process Grief is a multidimensional process that involves emotional, cognitive, bodily, and relational aspects, and it cannot be reduced to a linear sequence of universal stages. Contemporary theories of grief emphasize that loss activates attachment systems, emotional regulation mechanisms, and meaning-making processes, with highly variable outcomes across individuals (S

Post written in collaboration with  @luisazaccarelli_psicoterapeuta Introduction Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is a clinical construct introduced by Somer (2002) to describe an intense, prolonged, and difficult-to-control form of imaginative activity, characterized by complex, narratively structured, and highly emotionally engaging fantasies. Unlike common mind-wandering or normative daydreaming, MD is associated with a significant impairment of daily functioning, interfering

Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko  remains one of cinema’s most haunting and multifaceted explorations of the boundary between psychosis, existential crisis, and metaphysical possibility. The film invites not only speculative fan-interpretation, but grounded psychological reflection: its protagonist (Donnie Darko) inhabits a world in which time, causality, self, and the world itself fracture — a fitting metaphor for major psychopathology, yet also a poetic allegory of meaning-maki