Published: March 2023

Keywords:
Fabio Sbattella, Questions, Pathogenesis, Cognitive Processes.

Fabio Sbattella

Fabio Sbattella is a psychologist and psychotherapist.

He graduated in Philosophy with Mara Selvini Palazzoli and Luigi Anolli at the Catholic University; he then specialized in Clinical Psychology with Giorgio Rezzonico at the University of Milan and in Systemic Psychotherapy with Gianfranco Cecchin and Luigi Boscolo.

He has taught at the Milanese Center for Family Therapy since 1992 and holds seminars at various specialisation schools in psychotherapy and level 2 Master.

He has gained clinical experience in public and private mental health services, hospitals, child protection services and private practice.

He was an Honorary Judge at the Juvenile Court of Milan and is now a Professor of Emergency Psychology and Clinical Psychology at the Catholic University of Milan.

He is also head of the same University's Emergency Psychology and Humanitarian Assistance Research Unit.

He has worked in various European countries (Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Kosovo, Albania) and non-European countries (Salvador, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Russia, and China).

He is the author of numerous articles in Italian and international journals surveyed on Research gate and of the following volumes: Terrorism. Victims contexts and resilience (Educatt, 2019), Adolescents in connection (with E. Mirarchi, Angeli, 2019); Promoting and defending the rights of children and adolescents (with G. Scaduto, Angeli, 2018); Missing persons: psychological aspects of waiting and searching (Angeli, 2016); Foundations of Emergency Psychology (with M. Tettamanzi, Angeli 2013); Manual of Emergency Psychology (Angeli, 2020); Humor in an emergency (with M. Molteni, Educatt, 2008); Psychology of the life cycle (with C.Castelli, Angeli 2008); The psychological consequences of road accidents (with M. Tettamanzi, Educatt, 2007); Minors today between solitude and globalization (with C.Castelli, Vita e Pensiero, 2005); The ages of life (with C.Castelli, Angeli, 2004); Analysis of good foreign practices in the field of certification of skills (with M. Tettamanzi, Vita e Pensiero 2004); Psychology of disasters (with C. Castelli, 2003); Women and work. Factors of inclusion and exclusion (with M. Tettamanzi, Vita e Pensiero 2003); Which family with which minor (Angeli, 1999).

fabio.sbattella@unicatt.it

Abstract

With the occasion of a clinical case, Sbattella speaks of the counterfactual questions. The questions, as tools of systemic therapists, especially counterfactual ones, aim to open up new perspectives and alternative narratives. In this particular article, Sbattella reverses the question. Taking as an example the incident he describes, taken from the field of psychology in emergencies, he raises the issue of the pathogenic role of counterfactual questions, stating that on the first level, the answers and, consequently, the cognitive processes activated by them, serve a protective and defence function for the individual. But on a second level, it is a trap which activates in the individual obsessive rituals for a controllable and predictable world.