Giovanni Jervis’ Thought about Helping Relationship

Abstract

The author describes Giovanni Jervis’ thought about helping relationship starting from considering how he received inspiration from Jervis himself in developing a way of practising psychiatry which is always careful and respectful of others and of everyday life policy. The construction of mental wellness is a dynamic process that is pursued all life long: it concerns the way we work as well, on the one hand to overcome or at least to mitigate mental disorders, on the other hand to preserve the mental endurance of a Mental Health Department and its workers. Institutional therapy therefore maintains with realism and without idealistic illusions this double “maturity” goal, without because of this indulging in pessimism on human nature and on incurability: these pessimisms too often have had and still have an auto justifying function for doing nothing or doing wrong.