Italian humanistic-existential psychology

1. Introduction

Version followed: Luigi De Marchi's "psicologia umanistica esistenziale" as set out in his chapter in Lo Iacono (ed.), Psicoterapia umanistica. L'anima del corpo (FrancoAngeli 2006; 2nd ed. 2017; only the table of contents is drawn on), and as practised and taught today by the institute he founded in Rome, IPUE (Istituto di Psicologia Umanistica Esistenziale), using IPUE's published four-dimension description of the model (2022). IPUE's Manuale di Psicoterapia Umanistica Esistenziale (Filastro & Biondi, eds., Alpes Italia, c. 2021) and De Marchi's Lo shock primario (2nd Italian ed., ERI 2002; German original Der Urschock, 1988) are not drawn on. [uncertain] for anything below attributed to those books.

Read this first: source situation. This tradition has no openly available treatment manual, and De Marchi's own books are not online. What could be verified is (a) the theory's structure from the chapter headings of De Marchi's own chapter, (b) IPUE's current self-description of its model, aims and stance, and (c) first-hand accounts by two of his trainees. Every procedure below is tied to one of these; where a step is my own operationalisation it is tagged [synthesis]. No technique in this tab is presented as a De Marchi or IPUE protocol unless a source names it.

This is a theory and training tradition, not a single manualised therapy. Luigi De Marchi (Milan 1927 – Rome 2010), psychologist, translator and biographer of Wilhelm Reich in Italy, co-founder of the Associazione Italiana di Psicologia Umanistica (1978) and founder of IPUE in Rome (1984 or 1986: IPUE's own pages give both dates [uncertain]), developed an "esistenzialismo umanistico" that combined Rogerian person-centred relating, Reichian/Lowenian body work and an existential theory of culture centred on the denial of death. [source: Lo Iacono 2017 demo; formazionecontinuainpsicologia IPUE pages; Helferich 2010; Moselli 2010; Guzzanti 2021]

Core idea of change: human suffering and much human destructiveness are organised around defences against the awareness of mortality and existential vulnerability (De Marchi's "shock primario", the primary shock); these defences operate personally (symptoms, character), socially and politically ("difesa politica", ideologies, power). Psychology and psychiatry have themselves "repressed" death (his chapter sections "la rimozione della morte in psicologia/in psichiatria"). Change comes from a warm, non-judgmental relationship in which the person can meet these existential facts with less defensive distortion, reconnect with the body, recognise personal resources, and reorganise life around new goals and meanings. [source: Lo Iacono 2017 demo, contents of ch. 2; IPUE course pages] The exact definition of the shock primario (e.g. its developmental timing) is in Lo shock primario, which is not drawn on. [uncertain]

Today the tradition is carried on by IPUE (Rome; director Antonella Filastro), which teaches a "multidimensional, integrated and non-dogmatic" person-centred model and has added protocol-based existential interventions (Dignity Therapy, meaning-centred work, CALM and others) particularly in psycho-oncology, partly with the Ferrara psychiatry faculty. [source: IPUE course pages; Guzzanti 2021]

2. Framework

No published phase model was found. The sources describe dimensions of work, aims and a stance, not stages or session counts. [uncertain] Below: first what the sources give, then a [synthesis] sequence for a clinician starting now.

What the sources give [source: IPUE course pages; Lo Iacono 2017 demo]

• Four dimensions worked on, in varying proportions per client: empathic-relational ("empatica-relazionale"), bodily ("corporea"), existential ("esistenziale"), cognitive-existential ("cognitivo-esistenziale"). De Marchi's own chapter has a section "Tre dimensioni"; the fourth was likely added or separated later by IPUE. [uncertain]
• Aims: help people become aware of their personal resources; empowerment; reorganise existence toward new goals and meanings.
• Formats documented: individual psychotherapy (including long-term analytic-style work: Helferich was in analysis with De Marchi in Rome in the late 1980s); intensive residential groups (a six-day residential in Bellaria, 1991, run within an IPUE seminar series titled "Il corpo e i suoi enigmi"); psycho-oncology work beginning at diagnosis and continuing through illness phases. [source: Helferich 2010; IPUE oncology course]
• Session count and frequency: not stated in the sources. [uncertain]

Working sequence for a clinician [synthesis, built on the dimensions and aims above]

In psycho-oncology, IPUE starts at diagnosis and follows the illness's phases (treatment, remission or progression, end of life), shifting between dimensions as the medical situation changes. [source: IPUE oncology course]

3. Guiding principles

[source per line in brackets; the practical meaning is my wording]

• Person over diagnosis. Attend to this person's unique suffering, not to nosological categories of neurosis and psychosis. In practice: formulate in the client's language; use diagnosis only for risk and liaison. [Guzzanti 2021]
• Rogerian acceptance. Accepting, non-judgmental, empathic stance as the base of the alliance. In practice: reflect, check understanding, never moralise. [IPUE oncology course; Helferich 2010]
• Deep respect for the client's personality, including their resistance to the change the therapist wants. In practice: when a client does not move where you expected, revise your expectation before pressing. [Helferich 2010]
• Let the client see the professional's mask. Helferich recalls De Marchi's teaching that at the start of therapy the patient "wants to see the professional's mask" and the therapist should show it. In practice: be open about your role, method and fallibility early, rather than hiding behind technique. [Helferich 2010; interpretation of this phrase is mine] [synthesis]
• Non-dogmatic integration. The model is described as multidimensional, integrated and non-dogmatic; De Marchi was critical of dogmatism. In practice: choose the dimension and method that fits this client, and drop a method that is not helping. [IPUE course; Helferich 2010]
• Death and existential limits are clinical material, not taboo. De Marchi argued psychology and psychiatry repressed death. In practice: ask about mortality, loss, illness and fear of ending when relevant, and stay with the answer. [Lo Iacono 2017 demo, ch. 2 contents]
• Defences are understood existentially and socially. Personal symptoms and collective ideologies ("difesa politica") are both read as protection against existential terror. In practice: explore what a rigid belief protects the client from, without arguing politics. [Lo Iacono 2017 demo, ch. 2 contents; Filastro 2021 book description] Details of the defence typology not verified. [uncertain]
• The body matters, but is not a cure-all. De Marchi brought Reich and Lowen into Italy yet warned against treating the body as the answer to every life problem. In practice: use body work as one dimension, not a universal method. [Helferich 2010; Moselli 2010]
• Resources and empowerment. Therapy starts from what the person can already do. In practice: name strengths early and repeatedly. [IPUE oncology course]
• Meaning-orientation. The end point is a reorganised existence aimed at new goals and meanings. In practice: every phase is tied back to what the client wants to live for. [IPUE course]
• Lay, inclusive spirit. IPUE describes continuing "with the same lay and inclusive spirit". In practice: no religious or ideological stance imposed; meaning comes from the client. [IPUE manual course page]
• Freedom of thought and the tragic dimension. Helferich links De Marchi's outlook to awareness of life's tragic side together with a wish to free people from unjust social constraints. In practice: hold both, not offering false comfort, but supporting autonomy. [Helferich 2010]
• Encourage trainees to act. De Marchi pushed young trainees to take risks and start seeing patients. In practice (for supervisors): supervised early practice over prolonged theory. [Helferich 2010]

4. Intervention inventory

Scope note: the sources name the dimensions, aims, stance, formats and (for current IPUE) the protocol-based interventions adopted; they do not publish step-by-step De Marchi techniques. Interventions 4.1–4.10 are the procedures the sources describe, with steps written by me [synthesis] so they can be followed in session. 4.11–4.13 are external protocols IPUE reports using; their contents come from their developers' publications, which are not drawn on here [uncertain]. All example language is illustrative. Nothing below is a verbatim De Marchi or IPUE script.

4.1 Empathic-relational alliance (empatica-relazionale dimension)

• Purpose / when: Base of all work; first sessions and throughout, especially after any rupture. IPUE: the therapist builds a solid alliance by being accepting, non-judgmental and empathic. [source: IPUE oncology course; Helferich 2010 on De Marchi's Rogerian approach]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Let the client tell the story of their suffering in their own order. (2) Reflect content and feeling back in short statements; check accuracy. (3) Hold back interpretation and advice in early sessions. (4) Name and accept ambivalence about being in therapy. (5) At the end of early sessions, ask how the session felt and what was missing.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let me check I've got this: it isn't only the pain itself, it's feeling that nobody around you sees how frightened you are." / "You don't have to convince me it's serious. I believe you."
• Watch for / working when: Client corrects your reflections freely; brings material unprompted; affect deepens rather than becoming polite. Not working: compliant agreement with every reflection, intellectual summaries, missed sessions.

4.2 Therapist transparency at the outset ("showing the mask")

• Purpose / when: First sessions. Helferich reports De Marchi's view that at the start the patient wants to see the professional's mask and the therapist should show it. [source: Helferich 2010] My reading: the client needs to see the role, method and person they are dealing with before they can trust. [synthesis]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Explain plainly how you work: talking, attention to the body, attention to big life questions such as meaning, limits and mortality. (2) Say what you will and won't do (e.g. you may suggest body exercises; the client may always decline). (3) Answer reasonable questions about your training and orientation directly. (4) Invite the client's questions and doubts about you.
• Example language (illustrative): "Before we go on, you have a right to know who you're working with and how. I'm trained in a humanistic-existential way: we'll talk, we'll sometimes pay attention to what your body is doing, and we may touch on big questions like what gives your life meaning. You can say no to anything."
• Watch for: Over-disclosure of personal life (not the point); the client testing you with challenging questions, which is welcome and a sign of engagement.

4.3 Person-centred account of suffering instead of a diagnostic label

• Purpose / when: Assessment and formulation. De Marchi's approach attends to each person's unique suffering rather than to classifications of neuroses and psychoses. [source: Guzzanti 2021] Do still complete standard risk assessment and any diagnosis required for care or liaison. [synthesis]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask what the client suffers from, in their words. (2) Ask when it began, what was happening in their life then (losses, illness, separations, threats). (3) Map the four dimensions: relationships; body (tension, breathing, energy, illness); existential themes (fear of death, loss, freedom, isolation, meaning); beliefs and world-views that hold the client together. (4) Write a short shared formulation in the client's language and check it with them.
• Example language (illustrative): "If you had to put it in your own words, not a doctor's, what is it that you suffer from?" / "When did life first start to feel this way, and what else was going on then?"
• Watch for: Clients who want a label; give one if useful, but keep the shared formulation primary.

4.4 Resource identification and empowerment

• Purpose / when: Early, and whenever the client feels helpless. IPUE aims to make people aware of their personal resources and promote empowerment; in the oncology case the starting point was identifying the patient's resources and using them to redefine herself. [source: IPUE oncology course]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask about past difficulties the client got through and how. (2) List qualities, relationships, skills, values, bodily capacities and sources of pleasure. (3) Ask which of these are available now. (4) Link one resource to one current difficulty and agree a small action. (5) Return to the list at each phase change.
• Example language (illustrative): "You've been through hard things before. What did you draw on then?" / "Of everything on this list, which one could you lean on this week?"
• Watch for: Resource talk that feels like being cheered up; slow down and acknowledge the suffering first. Working when the client starts naming resources unprompted.

4.5 Body awareness and grounding (corporea dimension)

• Purpose / when: When suffering is held in tension, breathing restriction, numbness or somatic complaints; when talk stays intellectual. Bodily work is one of IPUE's four dimensions and De Marchi's school trained therapists in analytic bioenergetics in the Reich–Lowen line; De Marchi also warned against treating the body as a cure for every life problem. [source: IPUE course; Helferich 2010; Moselli 2010] The specific exercises IPUE teaches were not found [uncertain]; the steps below follow common body-psychotherapy practice [synthesis].
• Consent and safety: Ask permission for any body exercise; no touch without explicit, specific, revocable consent; screen for trauma history, dissociation, pregnancy, cardiac or respiratory conditions, pain and recent surgery; stop at dizziness or tingling from over-breathing. [synthesis]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask the client to notice where they feel the problem in the body. (2) Invite standing or sitting with both feet on the floor, attention to feet and legs, knees unlocked. (3) Invite slow, unforced breathing, noticing where the breath moves and where it stops. (4) Ask what feelings, images or memories arise. (5) Return to talking: link the bodily sensation to the theme in the session. (6) End with grounding and an orienting check ("look around the room").
• Example language (illustrative): "As you say that, what happens in your chest?" / "Just feel your feet on the floor for a moment. No need to change anything, just notice."
• Watch for: Dissociation, panic, flooding with trauma memories (stop, orient, ground); a client who uses body work to avoid speaking. Working when bodily sensation and spoken emotion come together and the client feels more present.

4.6 Expressive body work in individual or group settings

• Purpose / when: In the Reich–Lowen tradition De Marchi introduced, bodily expression is used to release held feeling. His institute ran body-focused residential seminars ("Il corpo e i suoi enigmi"). [source: Helferich 2010; Moselli 2010] Which expressive techniques IPUE uses was not verified. [uncertain]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Only after alliance is solid and screening (4.5) is done. (2) Agree an expressive form with the client (e.g. voice, posture, movement) and a stop signal. (3) Keep it brief and graded. (4) Always follow with grounding and verbal integration of what came up.
• Example language (illustrative): "Would you be willing to try letting a sound come with that out-breath? You can stop any time by raising your hand."
• Watch for: Catharsis pursued for its own sake, retraumatisation, pressure to perform emotion in front of a group. Not for clients with psychosis, active dissociative disorders or acute crisis unless the clinician is specifically trained. [synthesis]

4.7 Existential exploration of mortality and limits (esistenziale dimension)

• Purpose / when: Core of the De Marchi tradition: his theory places the awareness and repression of death ("shock primario"; "la rimozione della morte") at the root of personal and cultural defences, and he named Irvin Yalom as a main inspiration. Use when the client faces illness, loss, ageing, major transitions, unexplained anxiety, or when other work keeps circling back to fear. [source: Lo Iacono 2017 demo ch. 2 contents; IPUE manual course page; Guzzanti 2021] The exact clinical method De Marchi used to address the shock primario was not verified. [uncertain]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Listen for indirect signs of existential fear (fear of illness, of being forgotten, of wasting life, of being alone). (2) Name the theme gently and ask permission to explore it. (3) Explore concretely: what exactly the client fears, when it began, how it shows in the body and in daily choices. (4) Explore how the client has protected themselves from it (busyness, control, perfectionism, rigid beliefs, symptoms). (5) Stay with the feeling without rushing to reassurance. (6) Ask what knowing their life is limited means for how they want to live now; bridge to 4.9.
• Example language (illustrative): "I notice that when we talk about your health, you go quiet and change subject. I wonder whether there's a fear underneath that's hard to look at." / "If you let yourself really feel that your time is limited, what does that change about what matters?"
• Watch for: Raising death themes too early or with an acutely suicidal client (assess risk first; follow standard suicide-risk practice); clients flooded with death anxiety (slow down, ground, return to resources). Working when fear becomes speakable and gives way to clearer priorities.

4.8 Cognitive-existential work: beliefs and ideologies as protection (cognitivo-esistenziale dimension)

• Purpose / when: De Marchi read social, religious and political ideologies ("difesa politica") as collective defences against existential anxiety, and found shared psychological roots in opposing extremisms. Clinically, rigid world-views and personal rules can be explored as protections. Use when a client's rigid beliefs (about control, purity, enemies, perfection, guaranteed safety) are causing suffering. [source: Lo Iacono 2017 demo ch. 2 contents; Filastro 2021 book description] How IPUE operationalises the cognitive-existential dimension was not verified. [uncertain]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Identify a belief the client holds very tightly and that costs them. (2) Explore its history: when and why it became necessary. (3) Ask what it protects them from feeling or knowing. (4) Ask what it would mean to hold it less tightly, and what anxiety that brings up. (5) Look for a more flexible belief that still honours the need it served. (6) Do not argue about the content of political or religious views; the focus is on function and cost.
• Example language (illustrative): "This rule that everything must be under control: what would happen if, just for a moment, it weren't?" / "I'm not interested in whether the belief is right or wrong. I'm interested in what it does for you, and what it costs."
• Watch for: The therapist's own politics entering the room; client feeling judged. Working when the client can talk about the belief with curiosity rather than defence.

4.9 Reorganising existence: goals, meanings and a life project

• Purpose / when: Final aim of the model: reorganise existence toward new goals and meanings; in the oncology case, building a project oriented to new meanings and purposes. Use once the client has more contact with feelings, body and existential facts. [source: IPUE course pages]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask what the client wants their life to be about now. (2) Distinguish inherited goals from chosen ones. (3) Identify two or three meanings (relationships, creation, care, experience, values). (4) Translate each into concrete steps and time frames that fit the client's real constraints (including illness). (5) Review progress session by session; treat obstacles as material for 4.7–4.8.
• Example language (illustrative): "Given everything you've been through, what do you want the next part of your life to be for?" / "What would one small step toward that look like this week?"
• Watch for: Goals that are really defences (frantic activity to avoid feeling); imposing the therapist's meanings. Working when the client acts on chosen goals and reports a sense of direction.

4.10 Intensive residential groups

• Purpose / when: De Marchi's institute ran residential seminars, for example a six-day residential group in Bellaria (1991) within the "Il corpo e i suoi enigmi" series, led by a trainee he encouraged; such groups combined intensive group therapy with body work. [source: Helferich 2010] Structure, selection and daily programme were not described. [uncertain]
• Steps for a clinician adapting it [synthesis]: (1) Screen participants individually (exclude acute psychosis, active suicidality, severe dissociation, current crisis). (2) Agree group rules: confidentiality, voluntary participation in every exercise, no physical contact without consent, stop signal. (3) Alternate verbal group sessions with graded body awareness and expressive work (4.5–4.6). (4) Daily closing round to integrate. (5) Co-lead, so one leader can attend to anyone overwhelmed. (6) Arrange follow-up with each participant's own therapist.
• Example language (illustrative): "In this group nobody has to do anything. Saying 'I'll watch this one' is a full contribution."
• Watch for: Group pressure toward catharsis; casualties after intense days; boundary breaches in residential settings. Working when participants leave with integrated insight, not only intense experience.

4.11 Psycho-oncological accompaniment from diagnosis

• Purpose / when: IPUE applies the model to somatic illness and illness-related suffering such as cancer, starting at diagnosis and following the illness through its phases. [source: IPUE oncology course, R. Caruso]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) First contact as close to diagnosis as possible; prioritise alliance and containment. (2) During treatment: body dimension (fatigue, pain, body image), resources, practical coping. (3) At turning points (recurrence, progression): existential dimension, fears about dying, relationships. (4) In remission or survivorship: reorganisation of life and meaning (4.9). (5) Coordinate with the medical team with consent.
• Example language (illustrative): "We can go at whatever pace your treatment allows. Some weeks we'll talk about the practical, some weeks about the bigger questions."
• Watch for: Medical deterioration needing liaison; anticipatory grief in family; your own death anxiety.

4.12 Dignity Therapy (adopted protocol)

• Purpose / when: IPUE reports using Dignity Therapy (with the Ferrara psychiatry faculty) and its manual covers it. [source: Guzzanti 2021; IPUE manual course page] Developer: H. M. Chochinov. Content below from general knowledge of the developer's protocol. [uncertain]
• Steps (outline): A brief intervention for people near the end of life: a guided, recorded interview about what matters most to them, their life story, what they want remembered and messages for loved ones; the transcript is edited into a document returned to the patient to keep or pass on. Use the developer's published question framework and training; do not improvise the format.
• Watch for: Fatigue (keep sessions short), family dynamics in the legacy document, the patient's editorial control.

4.13 Meaning-centred work and CALM (adopted protocols)

• Purpose / when: IPUE's manual covers "Meaning Therapy" and CALM (Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully; developers G. Rodin, S. Hales) among newer existential approaches, plus CAT and RET, whose full names were not shown. [source: IPUE manual course page] Which "meaning therapy" (e.g. Breitbart's meaning-centred psychotherapy or Wong's meaning therapy) is meant was not verified. [uncertain]
• Steps (outline) [uncertain, from developers' general descriptions]: CALM is a brief, semi-structured individual therapy for people with advanced cancer covering symptom management and communication with health-care providers, changes in self and relationships, spirituality or sense of meaning, and preparing for the future and mortality. Meaning-centred approaches work through sources of meaning (historical, attitudinal, creative, experiential). Use the developers' manuals and training for session content.
• Watch for: Mixing protocol work with open existential work without telling the client which mode you are in. [synthesis]

4.14 Working with the ending

• Purpose / when: Final phase. Given the model's focus on limits and separation, ending is itself existential material. [synthesis, derived from the model's death-and-limits theme]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Set the ending date together well in advance. (2) Review the four dimensions and the resource list. (3) Invite feelings about ending, including disappointment. (4) Agree a follow-up option.
• Example language (illustrative): "Endings can bring up other endings. What is it like to know we're stopping?"

5. Handling problems

The sources give only two direct pointers: respect for the client's personality when they resist the change the therapist expects, and caution about over-valuing body work. [source: Helferich 2010] Everything else in this section is [synthesis].

• Client resists the change you expected. Helferich credits De Marchi's Rogerian respect for the patient's personality with helping him work with "difficult" patients who resist. Response: name the difference between your expectation and the client's direction; ask what the client wants; follow it unless risk requires otherwise. Illustrative: "I think I've been pulling you somewhere you didn't choose. Where do you want to go with this?" [source: Helferich 2010; wording synthesis]
• Stuck, circling talk. Shift dimension: from verbal to bodily (4.5), from personal story to existential theme (4.7), or from insight to concrete project (4.9). Ask the client which dimension feels most alive. [synthesis]
• Intellectualising existential themes. Return to the body and the present: "As you talk about death in the abstract, what do you notice in your body right now?" [synthesis]
• Overwhelm or death-anxiety flooding. Stop exploration; ground (feet, breath, room); return to resources (4.4); shorten and slow later existential work; check sleep and safety. [synthesis]
• Suicidal thoughts during existential work. Distinguish existential reflection on mortality from suicidal intent; carry out a standard structured risk assessment; safety planning and, where relevant, lethal-means counselling (safe storage or removal); involve crisis services when needed. Pause death-focused exploration until stable. [synthesis]
• Body work goes wrong (panic, dissociation, re-emerging trauma, unwanted touch). Stop at once, orient to the room, use the client's name, invite looking around and naming objects; afterwards discuss what happened, acknowledge it, and renegotiate consent. Do not resume expressive work until the alliance is repaired. [synthesis]
• Client sees the body as a cure-all (or the therapist does). De Marchi warned against this. Keep body work tied to the client's life questions and relationships; review whether it is helping. [source: Helferich 2010; response synthesis]
• Non-adherence to agreed steps (life-project actions, practice between sessions). Treat it as information: explore what the step threatened, which belief (4.8) or fear (4.7) it touched; reduce the step; check whether the goal is truly the client's. [synthesis]
• Ruptures. Name the tension, take your share, invite the client's view; use transparency (4.2): explain your intention and its effect. Illustrative: "I think what I said last time landed badly. I'd like to hear how it was for you." [synthesis]
• Political or religious clashes. The model's psychopolitical theory can tempt therapists to interpret clients' politics or faith as defences. Explore function and cost only for beliefs the client brings as a problem; never challenge the content of a client's politics or religion; keep a lay, inclusive stance. [source: IPUE manual course page on "spirito laico e inclusivo"; response synthesis]
• Serious illness and medical deterioration. Adapt length and frequency to energy; offer bedside or remote sessions; switch to protocol work (4.12–4.13) near end of life; coordinate with palliative teams. [synthesis]
• Therapist's own death anxiety. Work focused on mortality affects the clinician; use supervision and personal therapy (the tradition expects training analysis: Helferich was in analysis with De Marchi). [source: Helferich 2010; recommendation synthesis]
• Group casualties after residentials. Screen, co-lead, debrief daily, and arrange follow-up contacts in the following days; refer to individual therapy if someone is destabilised. [synthesis]
• Lack of a manual. Because the core sources are books not freely available, clinicians wanting fidelity to the current IPUE model should consult the IPUE Manuale and IPUE training/supervision in Rome. [synthesis]

Sources

Sources:

• Helferich, C. (2010). Ricordando Luigi De Marchi. Grounding, 1–2. FrancoAngeli
• Moselli, P. (2010). In memoria di Luigi De Marchi. Grounding, 1–2. FrancoAngeli
• Lo Iacono, A. (ed.), Psicoterapia umanistica. L'anima del corpo, 2nd ed. 2017, FrancoAngeli: preview with contents of De Marchi's ch. 2
• IPUE / R. Caruso: Il modello umanistico esistenziale in un caso di paziente con malattia oncologica (course page, 2022)
• IPUE: La Psicoterapia Umanistica Esistenziale (course page presenting the IPUE manual, 2022)
• Guzzanti, P. (2021). De Marchi, liberale eretico che cambiò la psicoterapia. il Giornale
• Fossi, G. (1985). Review of De Marchi, Scimmietta ti amo. Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 31, 428–430 (PEP-Web record only)
• Book listing: Quel che è vivo del De Marchi-pensiero. L'eredità di un rivoluzionario

Books cited (not drawn on unless noted):

• De Marchi, L. (1984). Scimmietta ti amo. Milano: Longanesi.
• De Marchi, L. (1988). Der Urschock. (German original); Italian 2nd ed. Lo shock primario, Roma: ERI, 2002.
• De Marchi, L. (2006/2017). La psicologia umanistica esistenziale: una nuova teoria della cultura e della nevrosi, un nuovo approccio psicoterapeutico. In A. Lo Iacono (ed.), Psicoterapia umanistica. L'anima del corpo. Milano: FrancoAngeli (contents page only).
• Filastro, A. (2021). Quel che è vivo del De Marchi-pensiero. NeP edizioni.
• Filastro, A., & Biondi, M. (eds.) (c. 2021). Manuale di Psicoterapia Umanistica Esistenziale. Roma: Alpes Italia. [year uncertain]
• Helferich, C. (1994). Due animali in una stanza.
• Chochinov, H. M. (2012). Dignity Therapy: Final Words for Final Days. Oxford University Press. [cited for 4.12]
• Hales, S., Lo, C., & Rodin, G. CALM therapy publications. [cited for 4.13; uncertain]

Further reading (not drawn on): IPUE website (ipue.it), Alpes publisher page for the manual, PubMed Central article on psychopolitic intervention (PMC3814432).