Focus: L'importanza della diagnosi

La clinica riscopre la giustizia sociale: il Power Threat Meaning Framework

Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Pubblicato: 30 aprile 2026
21
Visite
31
Downloads

Autori

L’uscita del Manuale diagnostico e statistico dei disturbi mentali, quinta edizione (DSM-5), nel 2013, fu accolta con sentimenti contrastanti: c’era chi lo salutava come una fondamentale innovazione nel campo diagnostico, chi ne denunciava gli assunti di fondo come sostanzialmente invariati rispetto alle problematiche edizioni passate. Nello stesso anno, la British Psychological Society pubblicò un position statement invocando la necessità di un cambiamento di paradigma nella classificazione di comportamenti ed esperienze in relazione alle diagnosi psichiatriche. Cinque anni dopo, nel 2018, alla vigilia dell’uscita dell’undicesima revisione della Classificazione Internazionale delle Malattie (ICD-11), la British Psychological Society pubblicò il Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF, da qui PTM) in forma integrale e sintetica. Nel corso dei sette anni successivi, il modello ha conosciuto una notevole diffusione: le traduzioni si sono moltiplicate e la versione sintetica è ora gratuitamente disponibile in spagnolo, norvegese, svedese e italiano. Parallelamente, attorno al PTM si è sviluppato un dibattito vivace: si sono attivati percorsi formativi, alcuni servizi ne hanno sperimentato l’adozione in diversi settori, ed è diventato uno dei testi di riferimento per una parte del movimento critico nel Regno Unito e non solo. Dopo averne delineato genesi e obiettivi, questo contributo esplorerà natura e metodo del PTM, evidenziandone il posizionamento epistemologico e politico. Verranno quindi analizzati i contenuti fondamentali e la loro innovatività, delineando gli ambiti di applicazione e le critiche mosse al modello, per concludere riflettendo sul suo potenziale come strumento per riconnettere clinica e giustizia sociale.

Downloads

La data di download non è ancora disponibile.

Citations

Atkinson, T. M., Nathan, L., & Sukhera, J. I. (2025). The Power Threat Meaning Framework: A Socially Conscious Shift in the Conceptualization of Mental and Physical Health. Journal of Prevention and Health Promotion, 6(4), 591-615.
Batstra, L., & Frances, A. (2025). Diagnosing the context is as important as diagnosing the individual. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1698878.
Bessone, M. (2023). Lo Psicoterapismo: psicoterapia e disuguaglianze tra mercato e diritti. Medicina Democratica. Movimento di Lotta per la Salute, 253-254, 67-76.
Bessone, M., Bianco, F. L., & D’Amico, G. (2024). Transforming clinical psychology: An ecological and psychopolitical perspective. An Italian and global case. Rivista di Psicologia Clinica - Open Access, 1.
Bessone, M., Sassoon, M., & Lioy, M. (2022). Dallo Psicanalismo allo Psicoterapismo: Per una politica della clinica e una psicoterapia critica. Ed. Radio 32.
Bodfield, K. S., & Culshaw, A. (2024). Applying the power threat meaning framework to the UK education system. Pastoral Care in Education, 43(4), 636-655.
Bortolotti, L. (2025). Epistemic Justice in Mental Healthcare: Recognising Agency and Promoting Virtues Across the Life Span. Springer Nature.
Bottaccioli, F., & Bottaccioli, A. G. (2024). La rivoluzione in psicologia e psichiatria. Edra.
Boyle, M. (2020). Power in the Power Threat Meaning Framework. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 35(1), 27-40.
Brett, A., Bodfield, K., Culshaw, A., & Johnson, B. (2024). Exploring LGBTQ+ teacher professional identity through the power threat meaning framework. British Educational Research Journal, 50(6), 2920-2936.
Castel, R., Basaglia, F., Fontana, L., & Basaglia, F. O. (1975). Lo psicanalismo: psicanalisi e potere. G. Einaudi.
Community, S. R. (2022). Using the power threat meaning framework in a self-help group of people with experience of mental and emotional distress. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 35(1), 7-15.
Cromby, J. (2022). Meaning in the Power Threat Meaning Framework. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 35(1), 41-53.
Da Mosto, D., Vallerani, S., Kokkinidis, G., Checchi, M., Giaimo, S., Adami, E., & Mammana, L. (2023). Building communities of health: the experience of European social clinics. Community Development Journal, 58(4), 595-613.
Danto, E. A. (2005). Freud’s free clinics: Psychoanalysis & social justice, 1918-1938. Columbia University Press.
De Vos, J. (2012). Psychologisation in times of globalisation. Routledge.
Devenney, R. (2021). Exploring perspectives of school refusal in second-level education in Ireland. National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Ireland).
Farmer, P. (1996). On suffering and structural violence: A view from below. Daedalus, 125(1), 261-283.
Foucault, M. (1969). La nascita della clinica. Einaudi.
Freud, S., & Staude, A. T. (2007). Cinque conferenze sulla psicoanalisi: 1909. Bollati Boringhieri.
Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford University Press.
Gallagher, O., Regan, E. E., & O’Reilly, G. (2024). The power threat meaning framework 5 years on - A scoping review of the emergent empirical literature. British Journal of Psychology, 115(3), 555-576.
Gallagher, O., Regan, E. E., & O’Reilly, G. (2025). ‘I’ve lived and bred violence my whole life’: understanding violence in the Irish Prison Service through the lens of the power threat meaning framework. Psychology, Crime & Law, 31(2), 178-206.
Harper, D. J. (2023). De-medicalising public mental health with the Power Threat Meaning Framework. Perspectives in Public Health, 143(3), 151-155.
Johnstone, L. & Boyle, M., Cromby, J., Dillon, J., Harper, D., Kinderman, P., Longden, E., Pilgrim, D. & Read, J. (2018). The Power Threat Meaning Framework: Towards the identification of patterns in emotional distress, unusual experiences and troubled or troubling behaviour, as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis. Leicester: British Psychological Society.
Johnstone, L. (2022). General Patterns in the Power Threat Meaning Framework – Principles and Practice. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 35(1), 16-26.
Johnstone, L., & Boyle, M. (2018). The Power Threat Meaning Framework: An Alternative Nondiagnostic Conceptual System. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 65(4), 800-817.
Kleinman, A. (2019). Concepts and a model for the comparison of medical systems as cultural systems. In Management of Healthcare (pp. 3-11). Routledge.
Labonté, R., & Laverack, G. (2008). Health promotion in action: from local to global empowerment. Springer.
Marmot, M. (2005). Social determinants of health inequalities. The Lancet, 365(9464), 1099-1104.
Marmot, M. (2013). Fair society, healthy lives. Fair society, healthy lives, 1-74.
McCall, L. (2005). The complexity of intersectionality. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 30(3), 1771-1800.
Morgan, A. (2023). Power, threat, meaning framework: A philosophical critique. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 30(1), 53-67.
Nichter, M. (1981). Idioms of distress: Alternatives in the expression of psychosocial distress: A case study from South India. Culture, medicine and psychiatry, 5(4), 379-408.
Nikopaschos, F., Burrell, G., Clark, J., & Salgueiro, A. (2023). Trauma-informed care on mental health wards: the impact of power Threat meaning framework team formulation and psychological stabilisation on self-harm and restrictive interventions. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1145100.
Paradiso, J., & Quinlan, E. (2021). Mental Health Caregivers’ Experiences From the Perspective of the Power Threat Meaning Framework. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 65(4), 837-856.
Pilgrim, D. (2022). A critical realist reflection on the power threat meaning framework. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 35(1), 83-95.
Powers, M., & Faden, R. R. (2006). Social justice: The moral foundations of public health and health policy. Oxford University Press, USA.
Prilleltensky, I. (2008). The role of power in wellness, oppression, and liberation: The promise of psychopolitical validity. Journal of community psychology, 36(2), 116-136.
Rashed, M. A. (2023). The ‘Power Threat Meaning Framework’: Yet Another Master Narrative? Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 30(1), 69-72.
Read, J., & Harper, D. J. (2022). The power threat meaning framework: Addressing adversity, challenging prejudice and stigma, and transforming services. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 35(1), 54-67.
Reis, M., Dinelli, S., & Elias, L. (2019). Surviving prison: Using the Power Threat Meaning Framework to explore the impact of long-term imprisonment. Clinical Psychology Forum, 313.
Rose, D. (2017). Service user/survivor-led research in mental health: epistemological possibilities. Disability & society, 32(6), 773-789.
Rose, D., & Kalathil, J. (2019). Power, privilege and knowledge: the untenable promise of coproduction in mental “health”. Frontiers in Sociology, 4, 57.
Singer, M., & Clair, S. (2003). Syndemics and public health: Reconceptualizing disease in biosocial context. Medical anthropology quarterly, 17(4), 423-441.
Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Soklaridis, S., Harris, H., Shier, R., Rovet, J., Black, G., Bellissimo, G., Gruszecki, S., Lin, E., & Di Giandomenico, A. (2024). A balancing act: navigating the nuances of co-production in mental health research. Research Involvement and Engagement, 10(1), 30.
WHO. (1986). Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Geneva: World Health Organization.
WHO. (2014). Social determinants of mental health. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2020). The inner level: How more equal societies reduce stress, restore sanity and improve everyone’s well-being. Penguin.
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level: Why more equal societies almost always do better (Vol. 6). Allen Lane London.

Come citare



La clinica riscopre la giustizia sociale: il Power Threat Meaning Framework. (2026). Ricerca Psicoanalitica, 37(1). https://doi.org/10.4081/rp.2026.1137