The Representation of Italian Psychiatry in Italian Treccani Encyclopedia in 1930's

Authors

  • Andrea Piazzi ASL RM G, SPDC, S. Giovanni Evangelista Hospital, Tivoli
  • Gioia Piazzi Sapienza ”University of Rome Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Department of Neurology and Psychiatry
  • Luana Testa ASL RMD company
  • Maria Antonietta Coccanari Dè Fornari Sapienza ”University of Rome Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Department of Neurology and Psychiatry

Keywords:

Enciclopedia Italiana , Treccani , History of Psychiatry

Abstract

The article reconstruct the situation of Italian psychiatry around 1930, using as unusual sources the pages of the Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti. This important work, conceived in 1925 and finished in 1937, is due - as well known - to the strong interest of Giovanni Gentile and to his capacity to involve in the project a great part of Italian intellectual world, without any ideological preclusion. The section devoted to Medical Sciences, including Psychiatry, was directed by Nicola Pende (1880-1970) and Giacinto Viola (1870-1943). A prevalent positivistic approach to science is well testified by their specific attention to preventive and social medicine, researches in Genetics and in biotypological constitutions. Psycopathological and psycological lemmas are very limited, underlying the medical disinterest towards contemporary philosophy and psycology.    

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Published

2013-06-01

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Articles