Military psychology practice in Ital.: From rrass roots to recent applications

The purpose of this chapter is to focus on a broad yet specific sector to briefly describe the history, development of military psychology (MP) in Italy in the last decades, and the current practices of psychologists working in several settings around Italy and overseas. The chapter will also discuss the role of military psychologist (MPsys) in regards to multiple issues, namely protocols for recruitment, organizational socialization, communication, and leadership training for Commanders, unit training with operational stress management, support to military families, and prevention of combat stress-related disorders. These areas of application of MP are closely interconnected and every MPsy is expected to keep that in mind at all times. In other words, the subjective, relational, and organizational dimensions of MP are all taken into consideration at once. This chapter will illustrate how the Italian Army sees all MP-related activities from a multidimensional and integrated perspective and will give examples of how such awareness should be the driver for every psychological intervention carried out in an organization.