News

"Il Cenacolo" and FESPACO have been holding the

Second International Festival of Cinematography and Movie Therapy starting a new method of analysis for film images

PARIS: images and emotions from Africa were the protagonists of the "Second International Festival of Cinematography and Movie therapy", which took place in Paris 25th and 26th September 1997.

Films were screened to tell about one continent and its people as well as to try and understand the relationship between images ad emotions, after the method of Iso Onstism Movie therapy, a quite new technique of analysing film images The two days film screening was employed as a means to approach and understand - if possible - both the problems and the great potential resources of the African continent and its people.

Open discussions took place between members of the audience and the films' directors, the aim of the Festival itself being, in fact, to educate to images and to the close relationship existing between the film and the emotions experienced by the onlookers.

The Festival was organized by the Association "Il Cenacolo" (an NGO in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations) and by the FESPACO ("the panafrican Festival of Cinema and Television of Ougadougou") the most important world film show, dedicated to African Cinema.

It took place in the UNESCO Building, Place de Fontenoy,7, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the "International Council of Cinema, Television and Audio-visual Communication" (CICT).

Five films by African directors were shown and analysed in the presence of both their authors (Pierre Yameogo, Abdoul Dragoss Ouedraogo, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Deni Kouyate, Mannsour Sora Wade) and two psychotherapists, prof. Loretta Lorenzini, president of "Il Cenacolo" and Prof, Michel Meignant, the president of the European Psychotherapy Association.

In the end the round table held on the 26th September at 8 p.m. was attended by Baba Hama, the General Secretary of the "Panafrican Festival of Cinema and Television of Ougadougou" and by Robert Kalman, the General Secretary of the "International Council of Cinema, Television and Audio-visual Communication" (CICT).

The last day of the Festival was dedicated to the problems of African young people A short by young Italian directors was projected and also the "Gruppo Alcuni" presented his project "CIAK JUNIOR"- cinema for young people": young authors working on the research of new links with Africa of the coming years.

Iso Ontist Movie Therapy

Iso Ontist Movie Therapy is a particular method of introspection into the world of film images. It permit the exact interpretation of the symbolic meaning and intrinsic dynamic and communicative power of the film by using the iso ontist methodology discoveries on the causal connections linking the image to psychic energy of the human being.

Cinelogy represents an original contribution to the culture of the image beyond technological developments.

As acquisition of higher culture with regard to the real motivations underlying the construction of images, the iso ontist movie therapy provides specialized competence in the field of cinematographic production, contributing to the construction of a new cinema the exposure of man's true essence.

Cinematographic fantasies touch something deep inside us because they are guided by the director's dynamic, unconscious logic, able to produce precise determinism in inner life and therefore in human existence.

To be able to understand the natural code of the image has always been the goal of those involved in the visual and communicative arts, and today this scientific, cultural and social need is increasingly apparent because we are immersed in an "image civilization".

In fact, the epistemological crisis of contemporary life is reflected in the blind use of power of images; blind because it abandoned to inspirations and canons without any guarantee of anthropological functionalism.

Today the iso ontist movie therapy it is usable by those professionals working with images who wish to place themselves at the service of personal and collective anthropological functionalism, rather than merely promoting the complexes of social unconsciousness.

10� Trade Fair for Entrepreneur Women

Madrid 22-25 October 1998

The 10� Trade Fair for Women, organized by Women's World Banking, aims to highlight the phenomenal growth in women's entrepreneurship in the past 10 years, making a big chance in women's role.

The growing presence of women as entrepreneurs signifies an important ste forward for their independence, as well as their critical role in economic development.

Women entrepreneurs have been able to solve grat obstacles in order to achieve their goals. They have demonstrated their extraordinary talent in identifying potential market and their busines without financial support from the banking sector.

Their business succeses have highlighted their critical role in growing the economy and influencing the quality of life in their communities. In this 10� Trade Fair for Women we will see how 450 women from different continents (Europe, Asia, North America) have been able to start new busines using the resource from their communities and regions, in an efficient manner, firmly placing themselves as vital actors in the global community.

In Madrid Il Cenacolo will presents its Iso Ontic Global Counseling and the activities started by women thanks to this new type of Counseling.

Women & Menopause

Global Counseling

For the 1999 (Year of Ageing People) il Cenacolo has realized a project on Menopause.

In Italy, in the Western Europe and in the United States Menopause is a one of the main problems for the women who live this period as an 'illness' or an handicap.

Our project is articolated into two parts: information and counseling (medical and psychological).

Information

Information to tell women what menopause is, and to help them to know that's not a 'tabu' but a problem, lived and suffered by milions of women. The first step of intervention is the dissemination of information about menopause, the clinical and biological aspects and to help women to think differently to this period of life.

The information is telematic (through Internet with Infowoman, our international network for women), traditional (pubblication, brochure,…), involving televisions and radios and even with information-events in different realities.

There is a second intervention at the end of the counseling: to give women the rigth information to realize a new idea, to change their life, their work, their look, their 'image', their world.

Medical and Psychological Counseling

The core of the preliminary clinical observations have shown a main Lack of investment in social life and productivity (external and Internal causes) in women with menopause. This phenomenon is correlated with variables which may determine sexual functioning and with standardised measures of self-esteem. The clinical treatment focused on the external (environment, social sphere), internal (self-esteem) and relational (partner) aspects of the personality has shown a good effectiveness in controlling the correlated variables.

The project goes on to validate our model and to propose an Innovative technique of intervention.

These aspects are pursued in two different lines of research.

In a clinical study, psychological (self-esteem, perceived control, personality experiences tests) and physiological (blood samples) measures are taken before and after a treatment (group and individual) in women experiencing menopause. Follow-up measures are taken after three months.

The second part of the project want to develop a psychometric Measure menopause-specific able to discriminate the absence of the syndrome in women with amenorrhoea without psychological symptoms. All women are with uterus and not on hormone replacement therapy, control groups are sampled. This is built in order to have an indirect measure of the predictions derived from our model (relevance of the personality aspects treated in the clinical work). The study is designed in order to control the reliability and the validity (convergence with other existing methods) of he measure. A cross-cultural study (with Japan, Sweden, Germany, Spain, United States, Latin America, China, Russia) is proposed.

The Iso Ontic Counseling

The activation of a specialized service of Iso Ontic counseling for women is the practical instrument of intervention realized by Il Cenacolo. The problem is analyzed in the medical aspects and in the psychological reality in order to offer a 'global' counseling to give women the instruments to live this period as a part of their life and not as an 'handicap' and to be even able to change their life according their new exigences.

The women in menopause generally have already solved problems of family and work and their experiences and energy which could be used to improve their position. The counseling helps women to know menopause, to live menopause as a part of the life and to empower themselves.

Scheme of Intervention:

1 First individual approach
2 Information
3 Medical counseling
4 Psychological tests
5 Group counseling
6-7-8-9- Iso Ontic specific tecnique of intervention
10 Individual counseling

The project is articulated into 10 meetings wchich can be organized in full-immersion (one week) or in differents periods.

Responsible for the project: Loretta Lorenzini
Executive staff:
- Information: Natalia Encolpio
- Medical support: Giuseppina Esposito
- Psychological support and tests: Maria Luisa Martelli
- Iso Ontic Counseling: Loretta Lorenzini

Women's Reproductive Health

Work & Preterm delivery

A 'innovative' research (coordinated by the University of Perugia in Italy) has been done in 17 European countries: ist's the first study which has analyzed this aspect and the counclusion are very interesting: work is essential in women life and its 'influence' on the pregnancy is relevant. The danger came from a physical stress but even from a psychological stress (the insatisfaction with the occupation a bad relationship with the other collegues…). The stress is strong even in the women who are unemployed.

A woman is twice as likely to go into premature labour if she is of low social class, has left school at 16, is teenager or is unmarried.

This is the controversial conclusion of a major study revealed today into risk factors associated with premature birth.

The Europop survey, which analysed the background of nearly 16.000 women who gave birth between 1995-1997 in 17 European countries, also hows clearly that the chances of a woman giving birth to a very premature baby are significantly increased if she:

a. is unemployed
b. is over 34 years old
c. smokes during the pregnancy
d. is overweight or underweight
e. is doing a job which is either physically strenuous, requires long period of standing or is mentally stressful
f. has had problems in a previous pregnancies

The counclusion we can draw from this are:

a. there is a strong link between levels of education and extreme prematurity
b. there is a strong link between personal strife/stres and extreme prematurity
c. there is a strong link between strenuous work and prematurity

Risk Factors of preterm delivery

Preterm delivery, defined as birth between 22 and 37 completed weeks of amenorrhoea, associated with perinatal mortality and morbidity and remains a major health problem, although improved method of obstetric care, delivery and neonatal car for the preterm baby are now available. Epidemiologie trends in the prevalence of preterm delivery and international comparison of the rates of preterm birth are difficult to interpret because of differences in the registration of birth as well as varying definitions of preterm birth. For years the risk factors involved in preterm delivery have been known: especially factors linked to obstetric history (previous low birth weight or preterm delivery) and to medical complications of pregnancy (placental abnormalities, gestational bleeding, cervical incompetence, uterine abnormalities, maternal illnesses during pregnancy like diabetes, EPH-syndrome, cervical and vaginal infections) and multiple gestation.

Noteworthy the increase of multiple gestations nowadays has been influenced by assisted reproduction techniques. In the last 20 years, international studies have shown a growing impact of social demographic risk factors. One of these factors is maternal age: specifically, adolecent (<20 years) and women over 35 years have an increased risk of preterm delivery; but not all relative international studies have come up aith uniform results. This is probably due to the small numbers of women studied; inadequate control for confounding factors and inclusion of medically induced preterm birth. Further social-demographic factors involve: race, i.e. black women have higher preterm rates than white women; marital status and unmarried women have to be linked to higher rate of preterm delivery than in married pregnants.

Moreover, low socio-economic status, defined on the basis of education, occupation and family income, is associated with an increased rik of preterm delivery. Substance use and abuse like cigarette smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, use of marijuana, cocaine and other illicit drugs are being investigated for association with preterm delivery. Findings, however, have been inconsistent. Only the use of cigarette smoking has been associated with a reduction in mean birth weight and it has been found that the increase of preterm delivery is related to increasing numbers of cigarettes smoked per day.

Furthermore, the occupation of the pregnant women has been found to be associated with preterm delivery. Several studies reported increased preterm birth rates in women under certain working conditions like: tiring postures, industrial machines, phsysical exertion, mentally unstimulating tasks or a physically unconfortable environment.

Information on the adverse effects of occupational or environmental toxicants on gestational duration is very limited. Few studies have take into account pesticide exposure, solvent exposure, ethylene exposure in dental assistance and ionising radiation in the electromagnetic fields.

Preterm birth cannot be considered as a single entity because prognosis strongly differs according to gestational age. Recent studies focused on two sub-population of very 'preterm births'occurring between 22 and 32 completed week of amenorrhaea and 'moderated preterm births' (32-36 weeks). Very preterm birth represent at least 1% of all births, but they acount for up to sixty percent of perinatal deaths and are associatd with the most severe morbidity. Use of these lower cut-offs should be encouraged, since it will permit identification of risk factors that have the gratest impact on perinatal mortality. Few studies have been performed on the risks for very preterm birth. In a large case-control survey performed in Europe between 1995-1997, the risks factors of very preterm birth have been analysed. This study (EUROPOP) was conducted in 17 European countries with the same protocol and questionnaire. The main objective of this survey was to know if women's employment or specific working conditions are risk factors of preterm delivery.

In the Europop survey 1675 very preterm births, 3652 moderate preterm births and 7965 control at term (> or - 37 weeks) were included.

Strenuous working conditions (work being in standing position more than 6 hours per day and working more than 40 hours per week) and strenuous mental working conditions (no statisfaction with job nd other stress factors) were significantly related to very preterm and moderated preterm birth. However, these factors were more strongly related to very preterm birth than to moderate preterm birth.

Socio-economic indicators (low educational level and low social class of the household), old maternal age and adverse previous pregnancy outcomes were more significantly associated with very preterm birth.

Smoking during pregnancy, young maternal age and low body mass index were associated to very and moderate preterm births, but no significant difference was observed between the two outcomes.