To our esteemed colleagues of the ISTFP,
It is a distinct pleasure to share some reflections on a topic that lies at the very heart of our joint endeavour: the intricate nature of mature love and the formidable challenges to its development. In our field, few figures illuminate these complexities with the rigor and profundity of Dr. Otto Kernberg. This paper stems out of an informal conversation we had with him in which he offered a psychoanalytic lens that cuts through simplistic notions to reveal love as a dynamic, often challenging, integration of various facets—including those we might prefer to keep tucked away.
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Silvia Bernardi
Silvia Bernardi, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. After graduating from medical school in Florence Italy in 2006, Silvia emigrated to the USA to work intensively in neuroscience research, studying the bases of the interaction between emotions and cognition. Silvia completed her residency in Psychiatry at Columbia and has since practiced privately in New York. She trained in Transference Focused Psychotherapy and continues to see patients for medication management and psychotherapy while conducting her research to unlock further knowledge to support the biological underpinnings of TFP and borderline personality disorder.