My first contact with psychoanalysis occurred when I was still an electrical engineering student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), in Belo Horizonte. At that time, I came across a few texts on Freudian metapsychology at a time when I was fascinated by physics, especially quantum physics. Later, I decided to study for a degree in psychology. Following graduation, I began my training in psychoanalysis as well as undertaking my personal analysis. However, my interest in physics never faded out and my continuous reading in this area is still, for me, an outstanding factor in understanding psychoanalysis.

I was a teacher at the Catholic University (PUC-MG) for two years from 1986 to 1988. During that period I decided to continue my university education in France and study for a doctorate degree. I spent eight years in Paris and during that time I studied different schools of thought, since I was concerned with the plurality of approaches to Freudian thought. Thus I took part in seminars from various psychoanalysts such as Joyce McDougall, Colette Soler, Piera Aulagnier, Heitor O’Dwyer de Macedo, Joël Dor, Patrick Guyomard, Jacques-Alain Miller.

At the University of Paris VII I presented my doctorate dissertation entitled "The construction of sexual identity feeling in the Transsexual".

Once back in Brazil, I lived for 4 years in São Paulo, where I continued with my work of theoretical-clinical research in different areas as shown by the texts which can be found in my Homepage. While in São Paulo I was a member, as a researcher, of the Fundamental Psychopathology Laboratory of the Psychoanalysis Nucleus of the Graduate Clinical Psychology of the Catholic University (PUC-SP). I was also co-founder of the Fundamental Psychopathology Laboratory of the Psychiatry and Medical Psychology Department of the Medical Sciences School of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). I am currently a member of the University Associaton of Fundamental Psychopathology Research, which links together several universities throughout Brazil and abroad. I also worked, as an advisor and a collaborator, in the PRO-SEX (Sexuality Project) of the São Paulo General Hospital Psychiatry Department, and in the Endocrinology Ambulatory of the same hospital. While still in São Paulo, I was one of the founders and remain a member, of the TVer Group (founded by the federal representative of that time – Dr.Marta Suplicy). Nowadays this group is known as the NGO TVer whose aim is to study Brazilian television quality.

In the beginning of the year 2001 I returned to Belo Horizonte and resumed my teaching position at the PUC-MG as well as my clinical practice. I frequently present papers in congresses, deliver lectures and conduct courses and seminars in Belo Horizonte and in other cities of the state of Minas Gerais as well as in other states such as São Paulo, Pará, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco.

I have kept in touch with other fellow psychoanalysts from France, especially from Paris and also from New York. I have regularly taken part in events related to psychoanalysis in these cities. I am particularly concerned with clinical psychoanalysis where the dialogue with theory, and theory in practice, occurs in a privileged way.

Besides the clinical aspect, my major interests are the transmission of psychoanalysis, psychoanalysis at the university, the discussion and evolution of psychoanalytic concepts and notions, the Freudian metapsychology bases, and the application of psychoanalysis to other fields of thought. The theoretical-clinical instruments provided by psychoanalytic theory has always been, and continues to be a constraining actuality for the understanding of the varied aspects of today's world and changes in our present period of time.

In creating this Homepage, my aim is to offer a virtual space where theoretical-clinical issues could be discussed. May this virtual space become a meeting point and a means of exchanging contributions to such discussions. Psychoanalysis will profit from this.

Paulo Roberto Ceccarelli

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