Our Founder

Sandro Gindro

Sandro Gindro

Raised in post-war Turin Sandro Gindro graduated from the city’s university where high caliber personalities such as Nicola Abbagnano, Norberto Bobbio, Gian Lorenzo Morteo and Massimo Mila taught. Graduating under professor Nicola Abbagnano and collaborating with Mila and Morteo in fact, made it possible for Gindro to pursue, alongside the study of philosophy and psychoanalysis, his interest in music and theatre, a passion he continued to cultivate his entire life.

A certain restlessness and a fascination for the capital city saw Sandro Gindro moving to Rome towards the end of the 70’s where he met Paolo Perrotti, a historical forerunner in the psychoanalytical circles of that time, from whom he was able to deepen his understanding of the subject. In Rome, just as in the rest of Italy, people were carried away by the follies and euphoria of those years however, there was also a profound shift in the way mental health was regarded, a change that subsequently brought about the Basaglia Act which effectively saw the closure of all psychiatric hospitals. During this time Sandro Gindro tried to combine the idea of a renewed form of social psychoanalysis with the often confused and rebellious anxieties of young people, particularly the more fragile ones.

One of his first endeavors was to start a music therapy workshop in one of the pavilions of Santa Maria della Pietà, a psychiatric hospital in Rome which was starting to abandon the idea of having patients “locked up”. He then went on to conduct a string of seminars in the most radical locations of the city such as; the Mural bar in the Trastevere neighborhood, an occupied convent and lastly the Eliseo theatre.

In 1979 he founded Psychoanalysis Contro (Psiconalisi Controand in 1983 the first edition of his monthly journal “Psychoanalysis, Culture and Art” was published. During these years Gindro was actively devoted to the training of young doctors and psychologists, many of whom were close collaborators of his right up until he passed in 2002.

In 1987 Sandro Gindro founded the Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research with the conviction that psychoanalysis, forever embedded in social and political issues, could contribute to the better understanding of society and its dynamics, especially when society was experiencing an ever increasing phenomenon of “discontent” among the population.

Gindro was a tireless cultural promoter, organizing countless seminars, meetings and talks but also exhibitions, theatrical and musical performances which were always ahead of their times and to which he consistently contributed his unique and unbiased views. His distinctive and independent way of thinking made him one of the most exceptional figures in the Italian cultural scene of the late twentieth century.

Renzo Rossi

“Ti vidi. Mi chiedesti per gioco
di cogliere un fiore per te.
Trovai con lo sguardo nell’erba
un Non ti Scordar di Me.”

(trilogia d’amore, 1994)

Renzo Rossi

It seems only right to also mention, albeit briefly, Renzo Rossi. Alter ego, secretary, adventure companion, chef, guide, avid reader but above all, faithful friend until death.

Born in Turin in 1943, Renzo rossi was Sandro Gindro’s long time collaborator and co-founder of the magazine entitled “Psicoanalisi Contro” in 1979. He penned the editor’s note on the first page of the magazine until 1992 and co-wrote with Gindro a column dedicated to an unscrupulous yet passionate review of musical and theatrical performances, books, restaurants and anything which might interest their culturally curious readers.

In 1987 he was one of the founding members of the Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research (IPRS).

An editor, writer and poet, his verses, both sacred and profane, were set to music by Gindro himself.
He died in his home in Sacrofano in 2002.

Ti vidi. Mi chiedesti per gioco

di cogliere un fiore per te.

Trovai con lo sguardo nell’erba

un Non ti Scordar di Me.”*

(trilogia d’amore, 1994)

*“I saw you. You asked me, for a laugh, to pick you a flower. I scanned the grass with my eyes and found a Forget Me Not.” (Trilogy of love, 1994)