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Franco Basaglia's experience at the Psychiatric Hospital of Colorno (Parma, Italy) lasted less than a year, from October 1970 to September 1971, and took place between the period of Gorizia and that of Trieste. His opinion on the Parma experience was varied and generally negative. The analysis of the documents and recent testimonies of those who worked with Basaglia in Colorno, such as the psychiatrist Luciano Carrino, allow us to say that "the whole psychiatric revolution was carried out in Parma, not in Trieste". The method of emptying the mental hospital from the inside through discharges to apartments and farms, the involvement of patients, communities and, when possible, families indicate the path through which the closing of the asylums can be achieved. A great composite liberation movement was created made up of mental health professionals, patients, citizens, students, industrial executives, and clergies. A method based on humanity and ethics, that does not tolerate indifference and injustice towards other people, came to light. In Colorno, Basaglia's disillusionment with politics and the end of his expectations of achieving an academic career also become evident. At the same time, a position against all kinds of total institutions emerged; this position went beyond mental hospitals, and included orphanages, facilities for the disabled and the elderly, and even prisoners. Franco Basaglia and Mario Tommasini, a politician who was very close to Basaglia in Parma, shared this political position on power and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution explores the significance of Marco Cavallo in the history of psychiatry using Walter Benjamin's concept of Bildwissenschaft. Here the concept of the image and the idea of fragmentation are seen as bringing to the surface certain thought-images (Denkbilder). As properly pre-theoretical (vor-weltlich) elements of our cognition, images operate revolutions: breaking from the familiar and opening a pathway to the exposure to shock [Chockerlebnis]. This gathers together the power of images to configure cognizability, as well as their possibility to rewrite history through the relationship of present to past. Marco Cavallo is offered as both image and metaphor for what is concealed behind mental health experiences, and as an image of the geography of "inside and outside", both in terms of social and public spaces, as well as collective practices of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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O presente artigo tem como proposta fundamental refletir sobre a prática da Reforma Psiquiátrica italiana relacionando-a a autores relevantes no contexto das Reformas em diversos países. Alguns trabalhos de Félix Guattari, Michel Foucault e Franco Rotelli são explorados neste texto, tendo como objetivo aproximações destes às ideias de Basaglia e seu legado. A Reforma Psiquiátrica italiana é uma referência mundial no que toca ao trabalho no campo da saúde mental e suas bases parecem se encontrar conservadas em lutas políticas e direitos civis, modificando-se regularmente por meio da (re)invenção das instituições, o que a torna singular. A desinstitucionalização, conceito chave para responder à prática realizada pelos italianos, é um dos pilares fundamentais deste formato instituinte de conduzir os processos cuidado no campo da assistência em saúde mental.

This contribution explores the most promising trends in the contemporary history of Italian psychiatry by analyzing three recently published volumes. The discussion considers the gender perspective, the oral history methodology, and changes from the post-war period to the phase of deinstitutionalization in order to offer new historiographical paths focused above all on daily practices, on the subjects involved, and on the memories linked to the liberation of psychiatric patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: The Italian anti-institutional psychiatric movement is closely associated with the name of F. Basaglia, whom Szasz in his 188-page essay on antipsychiatry labels a 'real phony' (in similar terms to others considered antipsychiatrists such as D. Cooper, R. Laing, E. Goffman and M. Foucault). Specifically, Szasz says of Basaglia and his work in psychiatry that it's a 'prevarication-illusion about the end of asylum psychiatry in Italy'. Aim/objective: The aim of this paper is to determine whether Szasz's assessments were reliably based on scholarly knowledge of Basaglia's psychiatric work, or can better be attributed to Szasz's misrepresentation of his Italian colleague. Methods: In considering this question, the paper is timely but, more importantly, it is also unique in considering Basaglia and Szasz together. It is beyond the scope of this article to examine Basaglia's career in detail, and references to it will be made only to clarify Szasz's assertions regarding Basaglia. Results and conclusions: As I will show here, Szasz misconstrued the Basaglian project for a new kind of psychiatry, and for the transformation and closure of the old asylum system. This erroneous view of Basaglia by Szasz is partly associated with his idea that Basaglia and other antipsychiatrists were supported by the modern socialist-therapeutic State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to compare the reform and the narration of the psychiatric environment in the work of Franco Basaglia and Mario Tobino from an ecological perspective. Both psychiatrists worked to reform the asylum spaces and the therapeutic relationships within it. Their actions and their narrations were both ecological but had an opposite ending. While Tobino defended until the end the idea of a safe psychiatric environment, protected by society, considered dangerous, Franco Basaglia strongly affirmed the repressiveness of the asylum space, the need to dismantle it and return the madness to society.

The paper, thanks to the synergical dialogue with "The Manifesto for Care of Mental Health", thoughts about the removal of the psychic suffering, in the current psychiatric treatment. The attention for the psychic pain that can concern everyone is, now, treated according to the biological medical pattern based on so called "evidence". Even though that pattern of an arid and positivistic psychiatric cure is turning out disappointing, the psychiatric system is still drowned by the objectification of the illness, despite this means giving up to important fulfillments of relational knowledge and proficiency essential in the psychic care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that "the crisis of psychiatry and of the Italian Law no. 180/1978" are words and definitions that cover with intolerable superficiality a real and deeper crisis of psychiatry. The roots of the change that took place in Italy between the 1960s and the 1970s are the consequence of a deep and distressing questioning about the various forms of psychiatry rooted in positivism. Adherence to the criticism of scientific positivism has determined, in the work of Franco Basaglia and others, a tumultuous and brave opening towards a search, a discovery, and a valorization of the subject. What happened and continues to happen in Italy has influenced and conditioned our way of seeing and meeting "the other" all over the world. In 1978 the Italian Law no. 180/1978 did not close the mental asylums but gave back to the mentally ill the rights and the meanings of being citizens. The deinstitutionalization process can only start from here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some problems addressed in the book Ritorno a Basaglia? La deistituzionalizzazione nella psichiatria di ogni giorno [“Back to Basaglia? The deinstitutionalization in everyday psychiatry”] (Peloso, 2022) are discussed. The issue of whether it may be useful for today Italian psychiatry to look back to Basaglia and more generally to the years of struggle that led to the promulgation of Law 180/1978, and whether this is still possible in Italy and in a world that have changed in so many respects, is addressed at three levels: the levels of the mental health professional, of psychiatric services, and of social inclusion. It is concluded that certainly the egalitarian, libertarian and solidarity instances that favored deinstitutionalization and the movement against exclusion seem to have lost strength today, and this makes everything more difficult, especially at the third level. However, probably this is not yet true to the point of inhibiting personal responsibility and the “choice” that each one can make: therefore, Basaglia and his years remain, in many respects, an important point of reference both for mental health professionals and the organization of mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some problems and critical aspects of the state of Italian psychiatry are reviewed today, forty-five years after the Law no. 180/1978 on psychiatry reform. This Law was inspired by the teachings of Franco Basaglia (1924-1980), and inaugurated a new season characterized by the progressive closing of mental hospitals and the beginning of community psychiatry. There are still problematic aspects, for example many mental health professionals are attracted towards a psychiatry that mainly emphasizes the use of medication and the biological aspects of mental suffering. However, the psychiatry reform of 1978, thanks to the deinstitutionalization process and the implementation of community psychiatry, has the possibility to facilitate therapeutic relationships chracterized by listening and dialogue, that may lead to respect the dignity of the patient’s suffering and to see the use of medication within a psychotherapeutic and sociotherapeutic context. The paragraphs with which this article is divided are the following: “The premises”, “The shadows”, “The half-lights”, “Psychic suffering in its dignity”, “Some thoughts of Basaglia”, “What is missing today”, “ The importance of words”, “The pandemic”, “Some conclusions”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to compare the reform and the narration of the psychiatric environment in the work of Franco Basaglia and Mario Tobino from an ecological perspective. Both psychiatrists worked to reform the asylum spaces and the therapeutic relationships within it. Their actions and their narrations were both ecological but had an opposite ending. While Tobino defended until the end the idea of a safe psychiatric environment, protected by society, considered dangerous, Franco Basaglia strongly affirmed the repressiveness of the asylum space, the need to dismantle it and return the madness to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texto histórico de Franco Basaglia, reprodução da palestra ministrada no "Encontro com os enfermeiros do Ospedale Psichiatrico di Colorno[1] (Parma)", realizado no outono de 1966, em que o autor relata elementos importantes de sua intervenção - em curso na época - no hospital psiquiátrico de Gorizia. Traduzido do original italiano: BASAGLIA, Franco; “La libertà comunitaria come alternativa alla regressione istituzionale”; In BASAGLIA, Franco (A cura di). Che cos’e’ la psichiatria? Baldini & Castoldi: Milano, 1997. Tradução de Ronaldo Vielmi Fortes; revisão de Alexandre Aranha Arbia.

Indago il rapporto complesso tra categorie diagnostiche psichiatriche e cultura, in una prospettiva multidisciplinare: psicologia, psicopatologia descrittiva, psichiatria culturale, antropologia, riflessioni basagliane. La complessità indagata ha riguardato: quanto la storia del Manuale Diagnostico e Statistico dei Disturbi Mentali (DSM) abbia tenuto conto della cultura, come lo stesso DSM debba essere considerato uno strumento culturale, la doppia valenza di necessità e stigma delle etichette diagnostiche, e l'importanza in psicopatologia di mantenere l'aderenza al senso della condizione di sofferenza soggettiva.

Copyright of Rivista Italiana di Conflittolgia is the property of Edizioni Labrys and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

1968 presents itself as a unique interweaving of student protest, of redefining family and generational relations, of gender relations. That revolutionary experience in other countries is exhausted during the “red biennium” (1968-1969); in Italy it continued over the “movement season”, with a critical reflection that, starting from the family, put the “institutions” into question. In this climate of renewal, Franco Basaglia, from 1961 director of the psychiatric hospital of Gorizia (until 1969), started a new psychiatric, psychological, pedagogical and anthropological cultural tradition in Italy, which in a few years opened the way to a psychiatry that we could call “ethical-pedagogical”.

1968 presents itself as a unique interweaving of student protest, of redefining family and generational relations, of gender relations. That revolutionary experience in other countries is exhausted during the "red biennium" (1968-1969); in Italy it continued over the "movement season", with a critical reflection that, starting from the family, put the "institutions" into question. In this climate of renewal, Franco Basaglia, from 1961 director of the psychiatric hospital of Gorizia (until 1969), started a new psychiatric, psychological, pedagogical and anthropological cultural tradition in Italy, which in a few years opened the way to a psychiatry that we could call "ethical-pedagogical". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unabridged proceedings of the morning of the first day of the International Meeting "An Italian 'Madness': The 40th Anniversary of the 'Basaglia Law'" ("Una 'follia' italiana: la Legge Basaglia compie 40 anni") are published. This meeting was organized by the "Italian Association for the Coordination of Helping Professions" (Coordinamento Italiano Professionisti della Relazione d'Aiuto [CIPRA] - www.cipraweb.it) in the Main Hall of Milano-Bicocca University of Milan, Italy, on November 16-17, 2018. At the beginning there is the opening paper ("Origins and meaning of the Law no. 180/1978") by Bruno Orsini, the Senator who drafted the Italian Law no. 180 of 1978 (the so-called "Basaglia Law", after the name of Franco Basaglia [1924-1980] who was a leader of the deinstitutionalization movement in Italy in the 1960-70s), followed by a round table chaired by Paolo Migone and titled "The Italian Law no. 180/1978. The different souls of deinstitutionalization movement in Italy: A reassessment" ("La Legge 180. Le diverse anime del movimento anti-istituzionale: un bilancio"). Among the invited participants of this round table there were also some of the closest collaborators and friends of Basaglia: beside Bruno Orsini himself, the participants of the round table were Maria Grazia Giannichedda, Stefano Mistura, Leo Nahon, and Pier Luigi Scapicchio (also Luigi Cancrini, Franco Rotelli and Paolo Tranchina had been invited, but they could not participate because of other commitments). In order to give a full report of the discussion, all interventions are here published, also those from the audience. The following colleagues intervened, in alphabetical order: Giorgio G. Alberti, Tommaso Biccardi, Massimo Clerici, Antonello D'Elia, Donatella De Marinis, Cécile Edelstein, Maria Grazia Giannichedda, Santi Laganà, Pier Luigi Lattuada, Fabio Madeddu, Andrea Salvatore Meluso, Paolo Migone, Stefano Mistura, Leo Nahon, Bruno Orsini, Giuseppe Pozzi, Antonio Restori, Pier Luigi Scapicchio, and Riccardo Zerbetto. The video-recording of this morning session is on the YouTube channel of the journal Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane (www.youtube.com/user/PsicoterScienzeUmane/playlists), and the program of the meeting is on the web page www.cipraweb.it/cms/29-eventi/convegni/67-convegno-internazionale-2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian reform of psychiatric health care, which in 1978 brought about the closure of psychiatric hospitals, was the culmination of a process that entailed numerous initiatives to reform the asylum from within, along with public campaigns to involve the general population. This article provides a close reading of one of the most controversial contributions to these campaigns: the photobook Morire di classe. The aim of this study is threefold: first to interpret Morire di classe with reference to the political philosophy of Franco Basaglia, the foremost proponent of the reform; second, to place Morire di classe within the history of Italian visual culture, at a watershed moment marked by the neorealist phototext, the current of concerned photography in Italy, and postmodernism; third, to debunk a number of criticisms that have been recently been leveled at the photobook. This article argues that Morire di classe anticipated strategies of the later postmodern impegno, insofar as it involves its audiences in the construction of meaning rather than imparting a ‘moral lesson'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Il saggio propone una riflessione sul percorso dell'artista Giuliano Scabia che, per primo in Italia, negli anni Settanta, ha sperimentato i luoghi del disagio psichico come nuovo ambito di intervento teatrale.

This article examines a celebrated documentary made for Italian state TV in 1968 and transmitted in 1969 to an audience of millions. The programme – The Gardens of Abel – looked at changes introduced by the radical psychiatrist Franco Basaglia in an asylum in the north-east of Italy (Gorizia). The article examines the content of this programme for the first time, questions some of the claims that have been made for it, and outlines the sources used by the director, Sergio Zavoli. The article argues that the film was as much an expression of Zavoli's vision and ideas as it was linked to those of Franco Basaglia himself. Finally, the article highlights the way that this programme has become part of historical discourse and popular memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will argue that child and youth care is a kind of social diagram that maps the relations of children and adults. It will propose that residential care in particular, when thought of as a machinic social diagram, has certain characteristics that map its functions and capacities. Perhaps the most central of these is the fact that it is an institution that houses people. The paper will trace the roots of residential care to the model of the asylum. It will go on to explore the door or entrance to the asylum/residential care program as a significant component in the production of the machinic social diagram of residential care.

This paper will argue that child and youth care is a kind of social diagram that maps the relations of children and adults. It will propose that residential care in particular, when thought of as a machinic social diagram, has certain characteristics that map its functions and capacities. Perhaps the most central of these is the fact that it is an institution that houses people. The paper will trace the roots of residential care to the model of the asylum. It will go on to explore the door or entrance to the asylum/residential care program as a significant component in the production of the machinic social diagram of residential care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of photography in the field of psychiatry is an eloquent example of the complex evolution of the relationship between science, communication and society. The research that follows analyses the development of such a relationship in a crucial period of the history of psychiatry: the 1970s. That was the time that witnessed the revolution of a science which admitted the failure of its methods and ‘instruments’, mental hospitals. That was also the time when a profound change took place in the communicative methods of photography related to this uncertain field of knowledge. A group of photographers, driven by the political situation of the time, covered the end of mental hospitals.