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.
