Critical and Radical Social Work • vol 2 • no 2 • 235–49 • © Policy Press 2014 • #CRSW Print ISSN 2049 8608 • Online ISSN 2049 8675 • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/204986014X14002292074708 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits adaptation, alteration, reproduction and distribution without further permission provided the original work is attributed. The derivative works do not need to be licensed on the same terms. radical pioneers Franco Basaglia and the radical psychiatry movement in Italy, 1961–78 John Foot, University of Bristol, UK
[email protected] This article provides a short introduction to the life and work of Italian radical psychiatrist and mental health reformer Franco Basaglia. A leading figure in the democratic psychiatry movement, Basaglia is little known and often misunderstood in the English-speaking world. This article will seek to address this by highlighting Basaglia’s significant role in the struggle for both deinstitutionalisation and the human rights of those incarcerated in Italy’s asylums during the 1960s and 1970s. key words anti-psychiatry • deinstitutionalisation • human rights • Italy • Franco Basaglia Biography Delivered by Ingenta Copyright The Policy Press Franco Basaglia was born to a well-off family in Venice in 1924. He became an anti-fascist in his teens and was an active member of the resistance during the war in the city. In December 1944, he was arrested and spent six months inside Venice’s grim Santa Maria Maggiore prison. The liberation of the city in April 1945 saw his IP : 192.168.39.210 On: Thu, 30 Sep 2021 10:29:08 release.