[1] Eugenio Gaddini, born in Cerignola (Apulia, Italy), received a philosophic and literary education and earned his M.D.

From 1951, he was analyzed by Emilio Servadio (it)[2] and in 1956 he gave up his position as head physician in Roma hospital to devote himself to psychoanalysis.

[3] From his work on rumination syndrome, or merycism, he developed the concept of imitation, a form of mental functioning tied to the "protopsychic" perception that precedes thought and that lasts a lifetime.

The contribution of Gaddini was to highlight how the imitation not only represents one moment in a process that leads to the thought formation, but also a stable relational form.

Other participants included Kenneth Burke, Jerre Mangione, the Italian-American author, Emilio Servadio, the Italian-Indian psychoanalyst and parapsychologist and W. Grey Walter, the neurophysiologist and robotician.