A psychiatrist, he was president of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society and of the International Psychoanalytical Association, the worldwide association of psychoanalysts founded by Sigmund Freud in 1910. His books and scientific works have been translated into many languages, and his main interests have been in empathy, dreaming, interpsychic and intergenerational relations. He is the founder of the Inter-Regional Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychoanalysis and regularly gives seminars and lectures intercontinentally.

Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, university professor, is director of Palazzo Madama in Turin and president of the Ateneo di Scienze Lettere ed Arti in Bergamo. A former member of the Superior Council for Cultural and Landscape Heritage of the Ministry of Culture (2019-2022), he was honorary director of the Civic Museums of Vicenza (2015-2018) and for the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome he curated the exhibitions Antonello da Messina (2006), Giovanni Bellini (2008), Lorenzo Lotto (2011), Tintoretto (2012) and Titian (2013), as well as numerous exhibition projects in Italy and abroad. He is the author of more than three hundred publications and important monographs. His popular appearances related to the national artistic heritage on major Italian and foreign radio and television channels are numerous.