The abstracts of the thirteen contributions supported by the Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation at the 31st International Congress of Applied Psychology, held in Florence from 21 to 25 July 2026, have been published by the University of Bergamo in the official Congress Proceedings, “ICAP 2026. New directions in Applied Psychology”.

The contributions explore Hortus Lizori, ecobiology and rural regeneration, pedagogy and the challenges of adolescence, alongside clinical and psychosomatic research.

ICAP 2026 – Extract from the Proceedings

The complete volume, edited by Annamaria Di Fabio, Edoardo Lozza and Giuseppe Scaratti, is available in AISBERG, the University of Bergamo’s institutional repository, under the Handle hdl.handle.net/10446/335627.

DOI: 10.62336/unibg.978-88-97253-30-3

On 26 September 2026, the elegant Sala Biblioteca at the Circolo dei lettori in Turin hosted the fifth event in the travelling reading series marking the ninetieth anniversary of Antonio Meneghetti’s birth.

The event, entitled “Revisiting a body of thought today”, was dedicated to the book Sistema e Personalità. Paolo Bianchi and Romano Benini led the reading and discussion, highlighting passages that, some thirty years after the book was written, remain strikingly relevant and raise questions that speak to the present.

The audience enriched the discussion with thought-provoking questions and observations, making the reading an opportunity for shared participation and reflection. The beauty and prestige of the venue were complemented by an attentive and curious audience, reflecting Turin’s vibrant cultural life.

Following the events in Rome, Assisi and Florence, the Turin reading continued the series dedicated to Antonio Meneghetti, bringing his books into dialogue with contemporary experience.

The Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation has awarded thirteen study grants as part of the Meneghetti Award 2026, which recognises master’s theses and research papers.

Ten works were recognised under the theme “System and Personality. Social Relations and Individual Identity in Current and Future Scenarios” and three under “BRICS+ Countries: A New Cultural and Economic Perspective”.

The works addressing the first theme examine current issues: the relationship between video games and gambling among adolescents, the influence of the social environment on gambling behaviour, the protection of minors online and exploitative labour practices on digital platforms. Sustainability is explored through the responsibilities of company directors and the architectural regeneration of mountain communities.

The international perspective includes studies on refugees’ living conditions in Uganda, arts-based practices in social work in Brazil, microcredit in Mozambique, and the impact of the pandemic on reading comprehension and educational inequalities in South Africa.

The three works dedicated to the BRICS+ countries examine the relationship between strategic narratives, institutional credibility and foreign investment through a comparison of India and China; monetary multipolarity; and the role of green hydrogen in the sustainable development of African countries.

Inspired by the theme of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum for 2026, this edition of the Award highlights the contribution of research to implementing the 2030 Agenda and achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The diversity of the winning studies reflects the connections between the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development.

Discover the winning studies and their authors

On 23 July 2026, Casa Italia MindLab at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence hosted a reading dedicated to Antonio Meneghetti’s book La psicosomatica nell’ottica ontopsicologica (Psychosomatics from an Ontopsychological Perspective).

The event, held as a satellite event of ICAP 2026, was part of a series of readings organised to mark the ninetieth anniversary of Antonio Meneghetti’s birth.

The discussion was led by Giancarlo Russo, Doctor of Physical Therapy and clinical psychologist; Nina Linde, Assoc. Prof., Dr. paed., researcher and President of the Baltic Ontopsychology Association; and Gabriella Palumbo, psychologist, psychotherapist, researcher and President of the International Association of Ontopsychology.

The reading focused on Chapter XII, dedicated to the neurophysiological correlates of mental activity: the body’s four fundamental systems, their interaction and the progression from psychic intentionality to somatisation. The discussion then examined the three stages involved in the development of psychosomatic processes, as described in the book.

Research published and supported by the Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation was also presented, highlighting the continuity between the book’s theoretical framework and subsequent studies in psychosomatics.

The conversation that began in Florence will continue at Borgo Lizori, where a course on psychosomatics will start on 10 October 2026.

Two international symposia and three oral presentations. Thirteen contributions promoted by the Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation were accepted for the official scientific programme of the 31st International Congress of Applied Psychology – ICAP 2026, held at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence from 21 to 25 July. The work involved scholars from Switzerland, China, Italy, Latvia and Brazil. This work was further complemented, as a satellite event of the congress, by one of the readings in the touring series marking the ninetieth anniversary of Antonio Meneghetti’s birth.

The sessions were organized in collaboration with the International Association of Ontopsychology and the Baltic Ontopsychology Association, with the contribution of the Sociedade Brasileira de Hipnose.

Held every four years by the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), and organised for the Italian edition in collaboration with the Italian Association of Psychology (AIP), the Congress brought together nearly 2,600 participants from every continent, with particular attention to psychology’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

23 July — Hortus Lizori: Rural Regeneration, Wellbeing and Sustainability

The symposium was held in the year marking the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the Borgo Lizori project. Fifty years of work in an Umbrian rural village were brought into international scientific discussion as a living laboratory: a long-term experience exploring what rural areas can contribute to research, education and the development of sustainable models of living and growth.

The experience was related to Goals 4, 11 and 17 of the 2030 Agenda — quality education, sustainable cities and communities, and partnerships for the goals.

Chair: Pamela Bernabei. Discussant: Gabriella Palumbo.

• Philosophical Roots and Intellectual Traditions — Paolo Bianchi (Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation, Switzerland)
• Architecture and Design for Wellbeing — Giancarlo Russo (Sociedade Brasileira de Hipnose, Brazil)
• Measuring Human-Environment Interactions — Pamela Bernabei (Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation, Switzerland) and Ai Min (International Association of Ontopsychology, China)
• Pedagogy and Transdisciplinary Education — Nina Linde (Baltic Ontopsychology Association, Latvia)
• Sustainability, Partnerships, and Civic Ecology — Gabriella Palumbo (International Association of Ontopsychology, Italy)

23 July — The Reading on Psychosomatics, a Satellite Event of the Congress

On the same day, Casa Italia MindLab hosted a reading dedicated to Antonio Meneghetti’s La psicosomatica nell’ottica ontopsicologica (Psychosomatics from an Ontopsychological Perspective), as part of the series organised to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the author’s birth.

The reading took place as a satellite event of ICAP 2026.

The work begun in Florence will continue at Borgo Lizori with a course on psychosomatics starting on 10 October 2026.

Read the dedicated news

24 July — Three Studies in Clinical and Psychosomatic Research

The three oral presentations reported on ongoing research promoted and supported by the Foundation, within the framework of the scientific agreement between the International Association of Ontopsychology and San Filippo Neri Hospital – ASL Roma 1. The studies brought to the attention of the international scientific community findings concerning dream activity, psychosocial factors and the psychosomatic dimension of cardiac and oncological diseases.

• Dream Pattern in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction: Retrospective Observation from the STEP-IN-AMI Trial
• Dreams and Correlations with Temperament, Character and Distress: The Ontopsychological Contribution
• Psychosomatic in Oncologic and Cardiac Disease Study: Psychosocial Factors and Short-Term Ontopsychological Psychotherapy Early Intervention

25 July — Ontopsychological Pedagogy and Contemporary Adolescence

The second symposium addressed several conditions associated with contemporary youth distress: social isolation, the Hikikomori phenomenon, the situation of NEETs, identity fragility and digital hyperconnectivity.

Ontopsychological pedagogy was reconsidered in relation to these current issues, examining its possible contribution to the development of personal responsibility, autonomy, creativity and the capacity to participate actively in social life.

Chair: Pamela Bernabei. Discussant: Gabriella Palumbo.

• Theoretical Foundations of Ontopsychological Pedagogy — Nina Linde (Baltic Ontopsychology Association, Latvia)
• Overcoming Adolescent Isolation: Hikikomori — Paolo Bianchi and Pamela Bernabei (Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation, Switzerland)
• From Idleness to Responsibility: Rebuilding a Scale of Values — Gabriella Palumbo (International Association of Ontopsychology, Italy)
• Digital Fragility and the Importance of Everyday Miricism — Giancarlo Russo (Sociedade Brasileira de Hipnose, Brazil)
• From Adolescents to Leaders: Responsibility and Historical Vocation — Pamela Bernabei (Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation, Switzerland) and Ai Min (International Association of Ontopsychology, China)

Participation in ICAP 2026 reflects the work that the Foundation intends to continue: supporting research and creating the conditions for methods, themes and results to enter international scientific discussion.

Bringing different disciplines, institutions and countries into dialogue means turning support for research into a concrete responsibility: accompanying ideas and studies into the contexts in which they can be discussed, verified and further developed.

The Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation participated in the 2026 ECOSOC High-Level Segment with an oral statement, accepted and delivered on 15 July 2026 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Focusing on the situation of young people not in employment, education or training and on their capacity to act, the statement highlighted the potential contribution of ontopsychological pedagogy to strengthening personal responsibility, balancing digital exposure with concrete experience, and fostering young people’s active participation in economic and social life.

Read the full oral statement

These themes were subsequently revisited and explored further on 25 July in Florence during ICAP 2026, within the international symposium Ontopsychological Pedagogy and the Challenges of Today’s Adolescents: Hikikomori, Idleness, and Digital Fragility.

Read the ICAP 2026 news

On 8 July 2026, while Spoleto was immersed in the Festival dei Due Mondi, Palazzo Due Mondi hosted Viaggio a Lizori – Nihil jucundius vidi valle mea spoletana, an event organised by the Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation and coordinated by OfArch – Officina d’Architettura.

Dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of Lizori’s restoration, the event attracted a large audience and brought the history of the village, the research developed over recent years and new possibilities for enhancing rural places into the centre of Spoleto. Engineers, architects, university professors, scholars, professionals, institutional representatives and members of the public took part in a discussion on the relationship between landscape, architecture, identity and the quality of living.

The event was held under the patronage of the Municipality of Spoleto, the Municipality of Campello sul Clitunno, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Perugia, the Order of Architects of the Province of Perugia, the Order of Engineers of the Province of Perugia and the Foundation of the Order of Engineers of the Province of Perugia.

The afternoon opened with greetings from Fabio Fabiani, representing OfArch; Danilo Chiodetti, Deputy Mayor of Spoleto; Pamela Bernabei, President of the Foundation; Filippo Ubertini, Director of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Perugia; Virna Venerucci, representing the Order of Architects of the Province of Perugia; and Moreno Marziani, representing the Order of Engineers of the Province of Perugia.

In her address, Pamela Bernabei thanked OfArch for hosting the event in a space capable of bringing Lizori into dialogue with Spoleto and the Festival. She then explained the particular significance of choosing Spoleto as the setting for the fiftieth anniversary. It was in 1976 that Antonio Meneghetti first came to the city for the Festival dei Due Mondi. He was fascinated by the Festival’s ability to bring music and architecture, theatre and philosophy, art and science into dialogue. During those days, while travelling through the Umbrian countryside, he saw Lizori for the first time. The village was then abandoned, yet he recognised a possibility where it was still difficult to imagine a living village once again.

The restoration project initiated by Antonio Meneghetti did not conceive of Lizori merely as a place to be saved, nor as a setting intended exclusively for artistic contemplation or tourism, as often happens with similar villages. Lizori could also become a place of learning, where beauty, work, research and community formed part of the same process.

“Climbing up to the village does not mean withdrawing from the world,” Pamela Bernabei recalled. “It means gaining height in order to see more clearly, and then returning to the valley with a different quality of action.”

Over the years, this insight has been developed through collaboration with the university. Research conducted in Lizori has made it possible to understand its restoration not only as a successful experience, but as a method to be studied, formalised and transmitted: a possible “Lizori code” for enhancing other rural villages without altering their character.

The discussion continued with presentations by Fabio Fabiani, Engravings for Possible Landscapes; Fabio Bianconi, The Real and Measurable Space; Ruggero Lenci, Lizori Furor Haermeticus; Alessandro Bruni, Landscape for the Quality of Living; Benedetta Terenzi, Cultural Heritage Design; and Marco Filippucci, Journey to Lizori: Landscape, Perception, Drawings.

The event also included the presentation of Viaggio a Lizori. Paesaggio, percezione, disegni (Journey to Lizori. Landscape, Perception, Drawings), a boxed set comprising two accordion-fold volumes by Fabio Bianconi and Marco Filippucci, illustrated by Claudio Patanè and published by Fiorina Edizioni: an invitation to discover the village through observation, drawing and landscape.

The large and engaged audience confirmed the value of an event that brought research beyond academic settings and placed it in direct dialogue with institutions, professional communities and members of the public. Within the cultural atmosphere of the Festival, Lizori thus returned to Spoleto fifty years after Antonio Meneghetti’s first encounter with the village.

Pamela Bernabei concluded her address by looking at the people gathered in the room: “I see a place that, fifty years ago, someone chose to love. I see many people who, after him, continued to choose it. And I see a village that has never ceased to reciprocate. Lizori does not give thanks with words. It gives thanks by remaining. And by continuing.”

9 July 2026

On 9 July 2026, the Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation received confirmation from the United Nations that its written statement had been published as part of the 2026 ECOSOC High-Level Segment.

The statement builds on the Foundation’s experience through the participation of Hortus Lizori in Italy’s 2025 Festival of Sustainable Development and reflects on the role of social infrastructure in resilient rural development.

Entitled Building Social Infrastructure for Resilient Rural Development, the contribution presents Lizori as a concrete and replicable place-based model in which regeneration, youth engagement and local governance support the implementation of SDGs 9, 11 and 17.

The statement was included in the official United Nations publication E/C.2/2026/CRP.23 as statement no. 35, on page 47.

Read the full statement on the Foundation’s website

View the official United Nations publication

On 26 June 2026, in the hamlet of Lizori, the Antonio Meneghetti Scientific and Humanistic Research Foundation organised Lizori. Drawing and Seeing, an event marking fifty years since the restoration of the village began in 1976, led by Antonio Meneghetti together with a group of friends.

Held under the patronage of the Municipality of Campello sul Clitunno, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Perugia, the Order of Engineers of the Province of Perugia and the Order of Architects of the Province of Perugia, the event brought together people who had personally contributed to the reconstruction of Lizori, scholars who now explore its experience through academic research and teaching, and participants from the local area.

The meeting was opened by Pamela Bernabei, President of the Foundation, who identified the significance of the day in the very composition of the audience: “This evening, I am standing before people who have experienced very different moments in the history of Lizori: some contributed directly to its reconstruction; others are here to study it, interpret it and carry its experience forward. It is precisely this meeting between different generations and areas of expertise that we wanted to create.”

Looking back at the experience that began in 1976, Pamela Bernabei recalled that the restoration was not simply the sum of individual projects. Those who restored their own homes also contributed to rebuilding the shared spaces and reviving the village as a whole: “Each person worked on what was their own, but was also building for everyone.” That choice continues to shape the way Lizori is cared for, studied and lived today.

Institutional greetings were then given by Simonetta Scarabottini, Mayor of Campello sul Clitunno; Silvia Meniconi, Deputy Director of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Perugia, who highlighted the scientific collaboration developed with the Foundation; and Stefano Tini, who attended in his capacity as Vice President of the Order of Architects of the Province of Perugia. Sergio Guerrini, Deputy Mayor of Campello sul Clitunno, was also present.

In her address, Mayor Scarabottini described Lizori as a village that, when cared for, is capable of generating “relationships, culture, work and quality of life.” She reviewed some of the achievements made possible through public–private cooperation, including the restoration of Palazzo Trinci, the castle lighting project and the encounter between the area’s traditional craftsmanship and a contemporary vision of living. In this history, she recognised Umbria’s distinctive “industrious beauty”: a beauty preserved through work and the participation of the community.

The floor then passed to the scholars.

Marco Filippucci, from the University of Perugia, addressed Representing in Order to Know: Integrated Strategies for Landscape Enhancement, highlighting the relationship between representation, knowledge and the development of tools capable of supporting the enhancement of both the village and its surrounding landscape.

Fabio Marcelli, from the University of Perugia, situated The Village of San Benedetto da Norcia, Pissignano and Lizori within the thousand-year journey of a sacred and vital place, tracing its historical depth and continuity within the territory.

Emanuela Chiavoni, from Sapienza University of Rome, presented Revealing the Intangible through Drawing, showing how drawing can make even the less visible dimensions of a place perceptible: its relationships, atmospheres, memories and ways of being inhabited.

The event also included the presentation of Viaggio a Lizori. Paesaggio, percezione, disegni (Journey to Lizori. Landscape, Perception, Drawings), a boxed set comprising two accordion-fold volumes by Fabio Bianconi and Marco Filippucci, illustrated by Claudio Patanè and published by Fiorina Edizioni. Created for the fiftieth anniversary, the work unfolds like a map, inviting readers to continue the journey through their own gaze, drawing and personal perception of the landscape.

The presentation of the boxed set gave concrete form to another passage from Pamela Bernabei’s address: “A place does not remain alive simply because it was saved once. It remains alive when, over time, someone continues to choose it.”

The evening concluded with refreshments, allowing speakers, guests and members of the audience to continue their conversations and share a convivial moment in the spaces of the village.

The meeting brought a tangible continuity into view: those who had brought the houses and shared spaces back to life met those who now study Lizori through drawing, research and the interpretation of the landscape. The fiftieth anniversary therefore showed that the experience of the village does not belong only to the past: it continues to generate knowledge and new ways of enhancing the local area.

The Mayor concluded: “Fifty years ago, someone saw a possible tomorrow. Today it is our turn to look farther ahead and, with the same care, draw the future we want to share.”

Following the event held on 9 March, the travelling reading series organised to mark the ninetieth anniversary of Antonio Meneghetti’s birth continued in Assisi and Rome, with two events dedicated to two of the author’s books.

On 25 April 2026, in Santa Maria degli Angeli, the Palazzo del Capitano del Perdono – UNESCO World Heritage – hosted a reading dedicated to Dall’Umanesimo storico all’Umanesimo perenne (From Historical Humanism to Perennial Humanism).

The choice of book found a particularly meaningful setting in Assisi. In a place where history, culture and concern for the human person have converged for centuries, Paolo Bianchi and Romano Benini guided the audience through the reading and discussion of a text that affirms the centrality of the human being beyond the boundaries of any single historical period.

On 6 June, at the Notebook Bookshop in Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica, the conversation continued with Ontologia della percezione (Ontology of Perception), one of Antonio Meneghetti’s most demanding works.

Paolo Bianchi and Romano Benini explored the complexity of the book with clarity and sensitivity, alternating readings from the text with discussion of perception, knowledge and the relationship between the subject and reality. Their conversation made complex questions accessible and drew the audience into a shared reflection.

Two cities, two books, two different perspectives: humanism and perception. What brought them together was the same invitation to return to these texts not simply to remember them, but to discuss, understand and question them in the present.