January - Febrary 1999 - N. 6
executive director Natalia Encolpio
associate editor Loretta Lorenzini
In this number
Women's Agenda
with the cooperation of the International Women's Tribune Centre, New York
A few weeks ago more than 30 000 farmers invaded Brussels. They arrived in tractors,
busses, cars and planes from Italy, France, Germany, Holland and Sweden. More or less well
disciplined they marched through the streets of Brussels protesting against the planned
reform to reduce the subsidy from the European Union to the agricultural sector. If the
reform is carried out the farmers might loose 10-30 percent in subsidy from the common EU
budget. Though the farmers make up only a few percent of the working population in the
European Union it is a very influential group. Many ministers tremble when the farmers
demonstrate.
At the same time as the farmers carried out the biggest demonstration in 30 years the
Women’s Committee of the European Trade Union, ETUC in Brussels, published a survey
on wage differences between women and men in the European Union. The average hourly pay of
women working full time was 27.5 percent lower than that of men. The gap was narrowest in
the former East Germany where women’s salaries are 12 percent lower then men’s.
Calculated on an entire country the wage gap was smallest in Sweden with 17 percent. The
gap was widest in the United Kingdom, 34 percent, followed by Greece at 32 percent and the
Netherlands at 31 percent.
One interesting information in the ETUC survey was that the wage gap is widest the
higher up the corporate ladder you go. Here women’s rates of pay are on average only
70 percent of those of men. So women wishing to make a career has to be prepared to fight
very hard to have a salary equal to that of men.
The wage gap is furthermore increasing with age. The gap is smallest for those under
20, where average earnings of women as a whole were over 90 percent of those of men. For
people older than this, the difference widens substantially. Women aged 30-44 earns on
average 23 percent less than men and those of 45 and over earn 29 percent less.
One would think that, on the eve of a new millennium and after decades of research and
debate about women’s and men’s earnings, the wage gape would be decreasing. But
that is not the case. On the contrary. One explanation to that the wage gap is still as
big as almost 30percent is, according to the ETUC, that there are so few women in the
decision making bodies – in politics as well as in employers and employees
organisations. There are, above all, very few women negotiators in the labour unions in
the EU.
So eighty years after the first European women had the right to vote women still have
inferior political and economical influence than the men. In spite of equality legislation
and substantial social reforms in Europe there is still a long way to go before women have
reached the goal of "the whole salary and half the power."
Thirty percent more or less makes quite a difference in income. The farmers, who risk
losing just as much if the EU reform is carried out, have realised that. That’s why
the carried out the gigantic demonstration the same day as the Ministers of Agriculture
gathered in Brussels to discuss the reform.
But when did we see the women of Europe march through the streets of Brussels,
demanding the same pay for the same jobs as men? Or when did the Women’s committee of
the ETUC or the women’s European organisation, European Women’s Lobby, fight for
women who earn thirty percent less than men?
Women are not paid from the EU-budget as the farmers are. But there is common
legislation in the European Union, stipulating that women and men should have the same pay
for the same and equivalent jobs.
Women make up almost half of the working population in the European Union. Women are
thus a far bigger and more powerful group than the farmers. I am convinced that many
ministers would tremble if 30 000 women demonstrated for equal pay in Brussels.
*Freelance journalist in Brussels
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Project director: Prof. Loretta Lorenzini
Encolpio, N. 1, Martelli, M.L. 1 2, Coppa, J. 1, Bertoldi, L. 1, Esposito, G. 1 3, and
Lorenzini, L1.
Methodology: Global Iso-Ontic Counseling for Women
To change, to be renewed, to modify one's life, beyond one
role, continuously.
Female counseling is born from years of experience and
successful practice.
Women, after the 50-year threshold and during the menopause
often believe they have no more chances and are not able to change anything in their life.
This feeling of being out of the game can blossom into an existential crisis or into a
psychological and physical illness.
Not only does life not finish at fifty but it holds
energies and new perspectives for women. Iso Ontic Counseling is the practical instrument
for assisting women to face this crisis point in their existence.
Change, but how?
Iso-Ontic Counseling involves the use of techniques and
specific intervention methodologies developed during twenty years of research.
This is an approach in which practical and operational
instruments are employed during counseling.
The training is preceded by a preliminary phase of
anamnesis; during an individual encounter problems, goals, desires and the general
situation of the client are analyzed deeply. This is followed by an information session:
to know ourselves better and to better understand the situation (biological and
psychological) we are living. Iso Ontic Counseling offers medical and psychological
support. During the fourth encounter, tests are administered.
A series of specific encounters follows to provide the
client with global consultancy, including individual and group encounters to give her
concrete instruments for solving the problems that have emerged and for changing herself.
A second information session follows to provide useful
approaches for carrying out a winning intuition, for changing work or for undertaking new
entrepreneurial activities. Body and mind, intelligence and also aesthetic pleasure are
considered. The Counseling also offers the careful, specific intervention of a stylist of
the total person to provide a new look for new women.
Intervention program
1 - Individual encounter
2 - Information
3 - Medical counseling
4 - Psychological tests
5 - Group encounters
6 - 7- 8- 9 Specific techniques of Iso Ontic intervention
10 - Individual encounter
The project is subdivided into ten encounters that can take
place in one week (full immersion) or over a longer period of time.
Research project
The aim of this project is to study the psychological
factors affecting women in the menopause period. We ought to verify our methodology in
psychotherapy and to give rise to preventive information counseling center in Italy.
Either non-specific or specific medical treatments, as
Hormone Replacement Therapy, may not be the only critical factors in controlling menopause
syndrome (moreover it has to be considered that for various reasons relatively few women
choose HRT treatment). A preventive psychological information and educational care program
has therefore to be planned.
The core of the clinical observations has suggested the
following questions:
1) Is it true that the psychological features (depression,
anxiety, low self-esteem) of the climacteric syndrome are the one that women experience as
being more disabling (Lorenzini L. Martelli M.L., unpublished)?
2) Are these psychological features correlated (we believe
probably caused by) to the stereotype of perceiving oneself as being old and cut out of
the games ?
Women and creativity
Responsible Dott. Natalia Encolpio, degree in psychology, PhD in History of Art.
Il Cenacolo has a project focused on the developing of
creativity.
The project is articulated into two phases. Starting from
the "reality" of the person, the psychotherapist, through some instruments
defined and adopted by the Iso Ontist psychotherapy, can help the client to:
- identify the creative potential
- develop the technique to express creative potential
- analyse the images, both oniric and artistic, to help the client to
understand the deep meaning of his artistic production and to understand the 'images' of
his life (conscious and unconscious)
- give historical and practical knowledge of the art (and technique) chosen by the client
The techniques and instruments defined and used during the
Iso Ontistic psychotherapy are:
- test of the six drawings (6DT standardised measure,
Martelli, M.l., Zavettieri, F., 1997)
- psychosemantic drawing
- movie therapy and image therapy
After this psychoterapic phase Il Cenacolo organise
specialised art courses (summer session) and Art Convivio to give a theoretical and
practical full immersion to the person who want to go on in the artistic knowledge. The
aim is to help the person to "enter in the pleasure of art".
3) Our psychotherapy treatment of menopause women is
focused on:
- Enlightening the stereotype of duty, which is
particularly heavy in this period of life. We have observed that women often have the
feeling that they must involve themselves in non particularly productive behaviors (i.e.
the house has to be perfect). These actions are perceived as being extraordinarily
important and they absorb all the time and the energy of the person. Frustration comes
from the unbalance between the real weight of these actions and the perceived one,
which have a tremendous energy cost.
- Promoting the actions in the world following the natural
interests of the person (i.e. what she finds beautiful and pleasant).
- Helping the person to understand her creativity
Is this treatment effective in eliminating the stereotype
of the "old out of the games"?
These aspects are pursued in two connected lines of
research.
1) A clinical study to validate the methodological
effectiveness of the treatment.
2) The development of a psychometric measure
menopause-specific able to discriminate for the absence of the stereotypes above
described. We are therefore working at the standardization of the questionnaire of
Perceiving Oneself Old (POO) in order to have normative data. We are also taking measures
of depression and anxiety. We are controlling the convergence with:
- NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) ( Italian version of
the Big Five structural model of personality, Goldberg, 1990).
- Multidimensional Health Questionnaire (MHQ).
- Personal Experiences Questionnaire (PEQ) for sexuality in the menopausal transition.
- Perceived Control over Hot Flushes (PCF).
- The Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL).
Parallel studies are analyzing the Italian reality about
women (sociological and personality measures along with demographic medical
characteristics are taken).
1 International Association Il Cenacolo.
2 Universit� degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza",
Dipartimento di Psicologia.
3 ASL, Health Care Centre of Napoli.
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In a preliminary study among other variables we have
observed
(Meneghetti Aurora, Lorenzini Loretta, unpublished) that
young people (Roman sample, 16-24 years old) don't reject neither accept abortion. Their
lack of negative/positive attitudes is not at all a lack of interest. From the measure we
took it is clear that their negative judgement (I disagree with abortion) depend (almost
exclusively) on the information about the problems of children (manipulation of the
effects) born from couples that wanted to abort but for some reasons (manipulation of the
causes) never did.
Results in the opposite experimental condition are also
interesting. In a Christian Catholic Country like Italy this young sample doesn't seem to
have an idea about abortion coming entirely from previous believes (religion, social class
and political believes where measured).
This result suggests that young people before making any
action or giving any judgement want to know the cause and the effect that the action
itself might have. In order to better understand the young population of our country we
are taking our measure on an Italian population based sample.
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Women's Agenda
with the cooperation of the International Women's Tribune Centre, New York
March 1999:
1-19 New York:
UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN/CSW). Women and Health and Institutional
Mechanisms for
the Advancement of Women will be considered from 1-12, and from 15-19, the Commission will
act as the preparatory committee (PrepCom) for the Special Session of the UN General
Assembly to review and appraise implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, to be
held 5-9 June 2000 at the UN. NGO observers to the CSW 43rd session must apply by 29
January 1999. Contact Koh Miyaoi, UN/DAW, DC-2, UN, NY, NY10017. USA.
Fax: (1-212) 963-3463. E-mail: [email protected].
22-30 New York:
UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD) meets from 22-24, and as the PrepCom for
the Special Session (SS) to review and appraise implementation of the ICPD Programme of
Action from 24-30. The SS will be held June 30-July 2, 1999. Contact: UNFPA, 220 E. 42nd
St.,
NY 10017, USA. Fax: (1-212) 557-6416.
E-mail: [email protected]. Web Site: www.unfpa.org/ICPD.
Commission on
the Status of Women
New York, United Nations
March 1999
Il Cenacolo will be in New York for the Csw and will propose to
the onther Ngos its projecs: Women & Menopause, Fifty: desire for change and Women
& Creativity.
Il Cenacolo will organize two meetings in the Csw: the 11 and the 12
of March from 11.30 to 1.00 in the Room B.
Women & Creativity
New York 13-14-15 March 1999
Il Cenacolo at the the Metropolitan Museum
the Museum of Modern Art
the Calandra Italian American Institute
Course
organized for the Commission on the Status of Women of the U.N. With the Collaboration of
the Italian Institute of Culture of New York
The Power of Images
This is a brief survey to show
how the Iso Ontist methodology can be applied both in the reading of a work of art and in
the analysis of artistic communication.
In 1993, at the International Association of Applied
Psychology Congress in Madrid, I investigated the so-called aggressions on works of
art. Michelangelo’s Pieta and David had been attacked and, recently, a Pollock’s
painting has been damaged in Rome. This phenomenon, unexplainable for historians, can be
explained easily and without any difficulty by means of the semantic
field. The semantic field is
an informational transducer that transfers information from a broadcaster to a receiver.
There is no passage of energy but only of images that mould and give shape to the energy
of the receiver who will then act as a result of the message received. In the case of
aggressions, I have noted that only some artists are victims and that the aggressors all
have great artistic sensitivity. Further, their destructive fury is not by chance. They
want to strike that work and that artist and no other.
Michelangelo Buonarroti is the most attacked artist
in Italy. Biographers note that Michelangelo was his own first aggressor. In fact, he
struck with a hammer one of hi last works, the Piet� of Santa Maria del Fiore in
Florence, which was recomposed later by a friend. The unresolved drama of Michelangelo and
the tragic destiny of Jackson Pollock have dialogued over the years with those who were
able (through thematic selection) to receive that message and carry it out. The semantic
field transfers this unconscious information from the work to the public. This shows that
the artist expresses himself in his work the conscious part of himself but also the
complex repressed part. The public reads and decodes using logic but dialogues and
interacts directly at the unconscious level.
Artistic communication was the subject of a
subsequent study which, in part, constituted my specialization thesis, presented in 1993
at the University of Siena.
The topic of the investigation was Stendhal’s
Syndrome, which strikes some tourists after intensive tours in museums and overexposure to
works of art. The phenomenon, the subject of psychiatric studies, was read, explained and
defined using the Iso Onticl method. Also in this case, the exact, unconscious (and
complexed) correspondence between patient and artist that provoked the syndrome was
identified.
My most recent works have been dedicated to the
criterion to apply in decoding artistic images. By applying the Iso ontist
methodology I was able to show with exactness the images that mark Vincent Van
Gogh’s psychic disgregation. There is an exact correspondence between marks and
pathology right up to Van Gogh’s total consumption and suicide. This study was based
on the new interpretative model, originating from knowledge of Iso Ontism, which
adopts the in self as criterion. It was the subject of a presentation
at the World Conference on
Literacy in Philadelphia (March, 1996), organized through the patronage of Unesco, and at
the Conference of Women in Psychology in Portland (March, 1996).
In 1997 I’ve applied the Iso
ontist method to analyze the
work of another twentieth century artist: Pablo Picasso brilliant Artist or brilliant
destroyer?
The study is based on the analysis of works that
mark the unfolding of his artistic biography giving an innovative interpretation of
‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’. The investigation is centered on Pablo’s
relationship with the female universe. Woman and her mystery were, in fact, the obession
of his life and his art.
Natalia Encolpio
Ph.D. in History of Art
Psychologist and Journalist
Course Schedule
Saturday 13 march h 2.30 p.m.
From Humanism to the Renaissance: the Italian Masters
Metropolitan Museum, 1000 Fifth Avenue
Sunday 14 March h 10.30 a.m.
Van Gogh, Picasso, Pollock
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St
Monday 15 March h. 6 p.m.
Calandra Italian American Institute
25 West 43rd Street, Suite 1000
The seminar, held by Natalia
Encolpio, is preliminary to the Course on "Women Artists: Artemisia Gentileschi, Tamara
de Lempiska, Frida Kahlo" which will be held in the March 2000.
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