Massimo Fagioli received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Rome. He specialized in neuropsychiatry and initially worked at the psychiatric hospital in Venice. Following this experience he went to work at the psychiatric hospital of Padua, where he organized one of the first therapeutic communities in Italy. Dr. Fagioli continued his therapeutic community experience in Switzerland at the Bellevue Clinic of L.Binswanger.

After completing traditional analytic training and after approximately ten years of practice of individual psychoanalytic therapy, Fagioli proposed the result of his work to the psychoanalytic circles. This came about through the publication of Death Instinct and Knowledge in 1971, which was followed by The Marionette and the Puppet (1974), Psychoanalysis of Birth and Human Castration (1975) and Child, Woman and the Transformation of Man (1980).

The publication of Death Instinct and Knowledge aroused a wide ¤ array of reactions; these soon evolved into a general climate of hostility which culminated in Fagioli's expulsion from the Italian Psychoanalytic Society in 1976.

In 1975 Dr. Fagioli was invited to serve as analytic supervisor at the Psychiatric Institute of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Due to a sudden and unforseen flood of interested students, these groups quickly transformed themselves into seminars of collective analysis; these seminars have continued without interruption ever since. Since 1980 the meetings of collective analysis have been held in a private center in Rome.

Massimo Fagioli began to take a direct interest in films in 1985 when Marco Bellocchio asked him to play an active role in the filming of DEVIL IN THE FLESH (Diavolo in corpo). This film tells the story of a woman who is on the road to normalization when she meets an adolescent and falls in love with him. His passionate love saves her from madness. Another important moment in Fagiol i's film career is the screenplay for the film THE CONVICTION (La condanna) which he wrote together with Marco Bellocchio. In this film, an architect is trying to find an ideal relationship with a woman. He is accused of rape and even though he is innocent, he lets himself be convicted. "The Conviction" won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1991 and the Golden Globe as best film. In 1992 Massimo Fagioli wrote THE BUTTERLFY'S DREAM (Il sogno della farfalla), which Bellocchio directed in 1993. In this film the main character speaks only when he performs as an actor, yet aoutside of the theatre he lives and communicates in silence. He clashes against the indifference and violence of the other characters and uses his silent beauty to oppose them. The film inaugurated the "Un Certain Regard" section at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and in the same year won the award for best photography at the Gramado Film Festival (Brasil). "The Butterfly's Dream" was defined by Bernardo Bertolucci one of the best Italian films.