Annalisa Tanzilli

Annalisa Tanzilli
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Annalisa verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
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Annalisa verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Sapienza University of Rome | la sapienza · Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies

PhD
Associate Professor in Dynamic Psychology, SAPIENZA University of Rome 

About

89
Publications
57,155
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Introduction
Psychologist and psychotherapist. Ph.D. in dynamic, clinical and developmental psychology. Associate Professor at the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. My scientific and research areas of interest are: Diagnosis, assessment and therapeutic treatment of personality disorders; countertransference, transference, and therapeutic alliance; process-outcome research in psychotherapy.

Publications

Publications (89)
Article
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The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between therapists’ emotional responses and patients’ personality evaluated by 3 dimensional diagnostic approaches empirically derived from the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 (SWAP-200; Westen & Shedler, 1999a, 1999b): Two of these rely on the 5-factor model (FFM) domains, that wer...
Article
This study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Therapist Response Questionnaire for Adolescents (TRQ-A; Satir, Thompson-Brenner, Boisseau, & Crisafulli, 2009), an 86-item clinician-report instrument measuring a wide range of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors expressed by therapists toward their adolescent patients. A sa...
Chapter
Countertransference is a crucial component of the therapeutic relationship that is strongly related to multifaceted processes involved in producing the patient’s change in psychotherapy. This construct has evolved from the classical and narrow psychoanalytic conceptualization, referring it as an obstacle to the therapeutic progress, to a broader an...
Article
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Background: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to address the limited generalizability of studies on defense mechanisms in depression by comparing depressive individuals with non-clinical controls (aim a) and examining changes throughout psychological interventions (aim b) (PROSPERO CRD42023442620). Methods: We followed PRISMA 2020 guid...
Article
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Depressive disorders in adolescence pose unique challenges for assessment and treatment, particularly due to their high comorbidity with various personality disorders. Moreover, young depressed patients may elicit very intense and difficult-to-manage emotional responses in therapists (in this context, countertransference). This study aimed at empir...
Article
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Background Eating disorders (EDs) are among the least studied mental disorders in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P). The primary aim (a) of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to identify factors predicting ED diagnoses in CHR-P individuals. The secondary aim (b) was providing a comprehensive clinical description of i...
Article
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Background Defense mechanisms play a crucial role in depression and anxiety. The current study aimed at estimating the network structure of defense mechanisms in individuals with symptoms of depression and anxiety to understand the most central defenses and relevant connections. Moreover, we aimed at examining the associations between defense mecha...
Chapter
This study examined clinician emotional responses and therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy with adolescent patients with specific subtypes of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). A national sample of therapists (N = 58) completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire for Adolescents to identify patterns of clinician response, the Working Allian...
Article
Full-text available
Epistemic trust has emerged as a promising construct in understanding psycho(patho)logical functioning. However, its interplay with other dimensions that may contribute to developing specific symptom patterns remains underexplored. This study sought to investigate how epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity relate to relational difficulties, defen...
Article
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Background The impact of depth of elaboration in individual psychotherapy sessions on overall treatment effectiveness was found in the empirical literature. In the best sessions, relevant content is processed with greater depth; in contrast, in the shallower sessions, the emerging content is more superficial. Evidence suggests that achieving a high...
Article
Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are psychosocial factors acknowledged as significant contribu- tors to health consequences later in adolescence, including psychological maladjustment. The research suggests that, at a transdiagnostic and transtheoretical level, working on restoring epistemic trust (ET), mentalized affectivity (MA...
Article
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The present cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study explored parenting and psychological adjustment during middle childhood in 30 lesbian mother families through donor insemination, 25 gay father families through surrogacy, and 21 heterosexual parent families through gamete donation. In each family, both parents of a child aged 6–12 years (Myear...
Article
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The Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales-Self Report-30 (DMRS-SR-30) was recently developed to add a self-report alternative to the assessment of defenses, reflecting their generally accepted hierarchical organization. In this study, we aimed to examine psychometric properties and factor structure of the Turkish language version of the DMRS-SR-30. The...
Article
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Aims To map studies assessing both clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) in clinical samples, focusing on clinical/research/preventive paradigms and proposing informed research recommendations. Methods We conducted a PRISMA-ScR/JBI-compliant scoping review (protocol: https://osf.io/8mz7a) of primary res...
Article
Objectives Increasing evidence has supported the mutual relationship between suicidal motivations and personality pathology, especially in adolescence. Distinctive aspects of personality functioning can explain the tendency to resort to suicidal ideation and behaviours, which, in turn, may play a specific role in exacerbating severe impairments in...
Article
Mental disorders with body-centered symptoms, such as somatic, eating, and body dysmorphic disorders, present difficulties in psychotherapy because psychological suffering is manifested in the body rather than expressed verbally. The present study illustrates a single case multi-method investigation sensitive to detecting characteristic change mani...
Article
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Over the past 30 years, an increasing number of people have identified within the asexual (ACE) spectrum recognizing an absence/low/situational sexual attraction to individuals of any gender. The current study aims to deepen the knowledge of sexual desire, erotic fantasies, and related emotions within the ACE spectrum. A total of 1072 Italian volun...
Article
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The concept of mentalized affectivity (MA) encompasses the dimensions of identifying, processing, and expressing emotions and describes the process of making sense of and reevaluating one’s affects in light of autobiographical memory. This construct was developed within the theoretical framework of mentalization and, due to its interpersonal nature...
Article
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Psychological factors may have a precipitant role in takotsubo syndrome (TS). Aberrant Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been reported in TS, suggesting inflexibility of the autonomous nervous system. Nevertheless, results on HRV alterations and their link with psychological factors in TS are conflicting. This work aimed to systematically explore wh...
Article
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Background: Chronic headache (CH) is a condition that includes different subtypes of headaches and that can impair different life domains. Personality traits can play a relevant role both in the development and in coping with this medical condition. The first aim of the present study is to realize a systematic review of the personality traits asso...
Article
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Background: Limitation to the capacity to love is often a feature of a suffering personality. Aim: We aimed to investigate the role of the capacity to love in hypersexual behavior, considering both distress and defense mechanisms as possible psychological mediators. Methods: Through an online platform, we recruited a convenience sample of 521...
Article
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The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual-2nd edition (PDM-2) stresses the importance of putting the complex person back at the center of the diagnostic, therapeutic, and research process, fostering the integration between categorical and dimensional classifications, and emphasizing both individual variations and commonalities. Accordingly, the Manual ai...
Article
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Background: A rising number of monkeypox cases have been detected in Europe and several Western nations. Evaluating the fear associated with monkeypox is crucial to determine the necessity for tailored education and prevention programs for specific populations. This study explores the psychological and social factors linked to the fear response to...
Article
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Objective Starting from May 2022, a growing number of monkeypox cases have been identified in several countries in Europe and the United States. To date, information on social reaction to the news circulating about monkeypox is limited. Assessing psychological and social elements related to the tendency to misinterpret monkeypox information is urge...
Article
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Background: The passage from pre-adolescence to adolescence is presented as a turning point for the achievement of those abilities in social understanding as they commonly appear in adulthood. Developmental perspectives point to the possible role of neuro-cognitive maturation and social experiences to facilitate this growth. This paper has the goa...
Article
Introduction: Transference (meant in this context, as the patient relational patterns expressed towards the clinician) and therapeutic alliance play a crucial role in the treatment of personality pathology. To date, no empirical study examined the association between these two dimensions of the clinical relationship and patients’ personality malada...
Article
Full-text available
The construct of epistemic trust has received much consideration in recent psychological literature, even though mainly from a theoretical perspective. The overall aim of this study was to validate the first self-report measure of epistemic trust–the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ)–in an Italian sample. Our primary go...
Article
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Assisted reproduction techniques (ARTs) are employed by single individuals and couples who are not otherwise able to conceive spontaneously. While the use of ARTs is increasing, research is lacking on the attempts made by adolescent offspring conceived via ARTs to integrate their ART conception into their identity and negotiate a connection with, a...
Article
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Introduction Therapists’ responses to patients play a crucial role in psychotherapy and are considered a key component of the patient–clinician relationship, which promotes successful treatment outcomes. To date, no empirical research has ever investigated therapist response patterns to patients with different personality disorders from a neuroscie...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably influenced all domains of people's lives worldwide, determining a high increase in overall psychological distress and several clinical conditions. The study attempted to shed light on the relationship between the strategies adopted to manage the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy, and distinct features o...
Article
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Background: Anxiety and depressive disorders represent predisposing factors for the autonomic dysfunctions that characterize the acute phase of Takotsubo syndrome (TS). However, there is insufficient data on this relationship after the acute event. The present study aimed at evaluating the psychological and autonomic status of patients with a hist...
Article
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Introduction Different from psychopathological assessment, personality assessment considers an individual's entire range of functioning. The evaluation of personality during childhood is more complex than assessment in other life phases, but crucial for understanding the risk and protective factors for personality pathology. This paper has two main...
Article
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Background: A growing body of evidence has shown that maladaptive traits and emerging patterns of personality can be traced to an early stage of development and may be assessed in childhood. The goal of present study was to provide preliminary data on the validity of the Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychological Inventory for Children (CPNI), an...
Article
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Background: Reliable clinical-diagnostic evaluation is crucial in childhood. The present research sought to examine the validity of the Psychodiagnostic Chart – Child (PDC–C) in assessing children’s mental functioning and personality organization according to the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual- Second Edition (PDM–2)’s framework. Method: A sample...
Article
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Beginning in March 2020, the Italian population was subjected to a lockdown lasting approximately three months, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency. Drawing on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of dream data, the current study aimed at exploring the effects of social isolation and the lockdown on Italian people’s dreams, focusing on c...
Article
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Background: Depressive disorders in adolescence are among the most challenging clinical syndromes to diagnostically identify and treat in psychotherapy. The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, Second Edition (PDM-2) proposes an integration between nomothetic knowledge and an idiographic understanding of adolescent patients suffering from depression t...
Article
Background : Studies showed that affective temperaments and attachment are associated with depressive symptoms, and that they bi-directionally influence each-other. The aim of this study is to explore mechanisms underlying the relationship between the affective temperaments (i.e., depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, hyperthymic and anxious), interv...
Article
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Background: Despite increasing research confirming the existence of childhood personalities, which are recognizable from a developmental perspective, controversies over the possibility to assess personality in childhood have continued. The purpose of this study was to provide initial data on the validation of the Childhood Personality Assessment Q...
Article
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Mentalizing capacities depends on the quality of primary attachment interactions with caregivers who thinks of the child as a subject with mental states. Operationalized as reflective functioning, mentalization is crucial for regulating emotions and developing of a coherent sense of identity, for interacting with individuals making sense to own and...
Article
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Aims: Recent meta-analytic data show that approximately 40% of individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) receive at least one personality disorder (PD) diagnosis. Personality pathology could significantly influence CHR patients' prognosis and response to treatment. We aimed at exploring the PD traits of CHR adolescents, in order to outl...
Article
The evolutionary perspective on human emotions and motivations posits that all interpersonal interactions are shaped by an array of social mentalities, dwelling on our species' bio-behavioral disposition to pursue some evolutionarily valuable social goals (i.e., interpersonal motivational systems). The paucity of valid and reliable measures of such...
Article
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Crying may be a beneficial experience and reflect a patients’ involvement in the therapeutic work, as well as a potential indicator of the healing process. This study explored the relationships between patients’ crying experience in therapy, their perception of working alliance and therapeutic change, as well as considering the role of attachment s...
Preprint
Background: In a longitudinal design, the present study examined: (a) the nature of attachment patterns and re- flective functioning (RF) in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR); (b) the association between RF and subclinical psychotic symtoms; and (c) the psychosis-predictive value of attachment patterns, RF, and the inter- action be...
Article
Full-text available
Background In a longitudinal design, the present study examined: (a) the nature of attachment patterns and reflective functioning (RF) in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR); (b) the association between RF and subclinical psychotic symtoms; and (c) the psychosis-predictive value of attachment patterns, RF, and the interaction between...
Article
This study examined clinician emotional responses and therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy with adolescent patients with specific subtypes of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). A national sample of therapists (N = 58) completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire for Adolescents to identify patterns of clinician response, the Working Allian...
Article
Objective: To examine whether the gender development of 120 Italian children (40 born to gay fathers [GFs] through surrogacy, 40 born to lesbian mothers [LMs] through sperm donation, and 40 born to heterosexual parents [HPs] through sexual intercourse) aged 3 to 9 years differed as a function of family type and/or child gender. Methods: Children t...
Article
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Increasing evidence shows that personality pathology is common among patients at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis. Despite the important impact that this comorbidity might have on presenting high-risk psychopathology, psychological functioning, and transition to full psychotic disorders, the relationship between personality syndromes and CHR...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Medication-overuse headache (MOH) is a type of chronic headache, whose mechanisms are still unknown. The impact of psychological factors has been matter of debate from different perspectives. The role of personality and personality pathology in processes involved in MOH development has been advanced but was poorly studied. The hypothes...
Preprint
Background. Medication Overuse Headache (MOH) is a type of chronic headache, whose mechanisms are still unknown. The impact of psychological factors has been matter of debate from different perspectives. The role of personality and personality pathology in processes involved in MOH development has been advanced, but was poorly studied. The hypothes...
Article
Several studies have highlighted the relationship between internalized sexual stigma (ISS) and dissociation. The aim of the present study was to empirically investigate this relationship through a quantitative study. The Measure of Internalized Sexual Stigma for Lesbians and Gay Men (MISS-LG) and the Dissociation Scale (DIS) of the Trauma Symptom I...
Article
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This study examined associations between specific elements of therapeutic relationships and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) outcomes. Notably, we focused on therapists’ subjective experiences during their first clinical interaction with patients, countertransference patterns and therapeutic alliance evaluated early in treatment, in re...
Article
More than any other time in modern history, today people are significantly more likely to know (or be) lesbian, gay, and transgender (LGT) people; however, prejudices directed toward these groups remain. In the current study, we explore how social contact and social distancing/desired social contact are related to LGT prejudices using Worthen's (20...
Article
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Literature suggests that several demographic variables are linked with religiosity in adolescence, such as gender, age and parental religiosity. The sample consisted of 910 young people (53% female) between 14 and 19 years of age, attending secular secondary schools in Rome, Italy. They self-identified as heterosexual adolescents (91.6%), and lesbi...
Article
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The new Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2; Lingiardi & McWilliams, 2017) aspires to emphasize a holistic view of individuals, rather than focusing solely on the treatment of diagnoses or the amelioration of symptoms that constitute them. In this paper, we discuss the ways in which the PDM-2 differs from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of...
Article
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The present study aimed to: (a) investigate the relationship between attitudes toward same-sex parenting and sexism both in heterosexuals and sexual minorities; (b) verify whether sexism predicted negative attitudes toward same-sex parenting via the mediating role of sexual stigma (sexual prejudice in heterosexual people and internalized sexual sti...
Article
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The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure and the psychometric properties of the Psychotherapy Relationship Questionnaire (PRQ; Bradley, Heim, & Westen, 2005), a clinician report instrument that measures a wide spectrum of thoughts, feelings, motives, conflicts, and behaviors expressed by patients toward their therapists in psychoth...
Article
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Background Despite growing attention to the general therapist effects in a wide range of clinical settings, little is known about the individual, cross-situational, and therapy–nonspecific variables that impact on the differential effectiveness of clinicians. The current study is a systematic review of the evidence relating to the influence of ther...
Article
Mentalization, operationalized as reflective functioning (RF), can play a crucial role in the psychological mechanisms underlying personality functioning. This study aimed to: (a) study the association between RF, personality disorders (cluster level) and functioning; (b) investigate whether RF and personality functioning are influenced by (secure...
Article
Full-text available
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is one of the most challenging clinical syndromes to treat in psychotherapy, especially due to the difficulties of establishing a good enough therapist–patient relationship. Countertransference responses to NPD can be particularly intense, frustrating, and difficult to manage, as is often reported in the clin...
Article
Full-text available
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and its prevention is a global public health priority. There is strong scientific evidence that suggests IPV and symptoms such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, chronic pain, etc. are linked. Despite recommendations and var...
Article
Abstract Background: Patient transference patterns play a central role in the psychotherapy of personality disorders. Objective: The aims of this study were to: (1) explore the relationship between patients' personality disorders and specific relational patterns and (2) construct empirically derived prototypes of relational patterns for each person...
Poster
Several empirical contributions focused on negative attitudes towards same-sex marriage, parenting and family legalization given that these issues continue to generate controversy especially in Italy, where the recognition of civil rights proceeds more slowly than in other countries. The present study intended to investigate negative attitudes towa...
Article
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This study is an extension of earlier research that investigated the nature of homonegativity among Italian people (Lingiardi, Falanga, & D’Augelli, 2005). We used the Modern Homophobia Scale (MHS), adapted to be more appropriate for the Italian social and cultural context. Associations were examined between homophobic attitudes, demographics, and...
Article
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This study used naturalistic data from psychodynamic (PD) and cognitive–behavioral (CB) clinicians in the community to offer a portrait of treatments for eating disorder (ED) patients as provided in everyday clinical practice. The research aims were (1) to examine the therapeutic interventions reported by PD and CB clinicians working with ED patien...
Article
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The aim of this study was to examine the stability of the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Therapist Response Questionnaire (Betan, Heim, Zittel Conklin, & Westen, 2005; Zittel Conklin & Westen, 2003), a clinician report instrument able to measure the clinician's emotional reactions to the patient in psychotherapy. A national sam...
Article
Full-text available
Patients with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are among the most difficult to treat in therapy, especially due to their strong resistance to treatment and other difficulties in establishing a therapeutic relationship characterized by intimacy, safety, and trust. In particular, therapists‖ emotional responses to these patients can be particu...
Article
Full-text available
Countertransference can be viewed as a source of valuable diagnostic and therapeutic information and plays a crucial role in psychotherapy process and outcome. Some empirical researches have showed that patients' specific personality characteristics tend to evoke distinct patterns of emotional response in clinicians. However, to date there have bee...