THE MANY FACETS OF GIANT-RESONANCES AT HIGH-EXCITATION ENERGIES

We show that from a study of collective motions built on highly excite d states we can extract important information on open problems in nucl ear structure and dynamics: i) Competition between one- and two-body d issipation, ii) Effects of correlations and related density fluctuatio ns, iii) Transition in the nature of nuclear collective motions: from pure quantum to classical sound waves, iv) Pre-equilibrium effects: th e ''dynamical'' dipole in charge asymmetric entrance channels, v) Fusi on hindrance from dynamical instabilities. We try also to discuss the relevance of new, more exclusive, experiments and of a larger systemat ics.