Mike Arons PhD of West Georgia State University says about Ontosophy

Over the past five years I have come to know, personally and as colleague, Francesco Palmirotta; his philosophical-theoretical and methodological work, developed under the term Psychosomatic Ontosophy, and the therapy center, Solinio, that he and his colleagues have created in the region Bari,
As best I understand this, Palmirotta’s thinking and work — from their base in Italy ? speak as unique and promising contributions to the humanistic psychology orientation that, under such pioneering founders as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, emerged in American psychology at mid-Twentieth century: an American-born orientation that, ironically in turn, draws much of its own inspiration from the Italian Renaissance and its sources in the wisdom literature of Antiquity.
What most basically joins Palmirotta and his work to humanistic psychology, in my view, is their stress on the fuller, more holistic, vision of psychological health ? what it means to be a full human being ? a vision sorely lacking in a psychology previously preoccupied with either reducing the human to an object of scientific explanation or to merely a by-product of infantile dynamics. The humanistic vision ? fully incorporated in Palmirotta’s theory and practice ? emphasizes the arts, philosophy (wisdom seeking) and creativity in both model of health and method of treatment.
Within this broader humanistic framework that grounds the best of the Western traditions, Palmirotta has discerned and developed specifics of application ? using the arts and a very particular kind of “talking cure” that serve to transpose in practice complaints of suffering and indications of pathology into creative strengths and deepening philosophical self understanding of the sort philosophers of both the Renaissance and antiquity found so essential to human being.
By taking up Freud’s term “talking cure” to both liken it to and differentiate it from Palmirotta’s approach to therapy I would add that this latter might be thought of as “resonating empathy”, in the musical sense ? and indeed using music as well as other arts ? to both “tune into” and “self-attune” the client: that is, to draw the therapist into attunement with the client and by so doing to draw the client to his or her full “symphonic” being, with all its unique and creative potential. The center, Solinio, provides the supportive ambiance for this therapeutic transposition.

Mike Arons, Ph.D
Professor Emeritus of Psychology
University of West Georgia