When the wind of the 1960s blew through world of psychiatry
John Foot is Professor of Modern Italian History in the School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol. He has published several books on sports and contemporary Italian history. He writes a blog for the Italian magazine Internazionale and has written for the Guardian, the Independent on Sunday, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and History Today. He was Coeditor of the journal Modern Italy between 2010 and 2014.
Peopled by a cast of extraordinary characters - patients,
colleagues, friends and enemies - revolving around the charismatic
and now legendary psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, John Foot's
sympathetic account de-mythologises the reform by uncovering
little-known precedents, distancing Basaglia from anti-psychiatry
and situating his work within Italian radical politics of the late
1960s. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in psychiatric
reform.
*Howard Caygill, author of On Resistance*
The anti-asylum movement in 1960s and '70s Italy forms one of the
most fascinating episodes in western psychiatry. John Foot's richly
documented and revealing study of this movement and its pioneer
figure, the charismatic radical psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, adds
immeasurably to our understanding of the troubled history of mental
health care in modern times.
*Barbara Taylor, author of The Last Asylum*
A brilliant historical reconstruction of the work and ideas of one
of the world's leading exponents of critical psychiatry.
*David Forgacs, author of Italy’s Margins*
A portrait of imperfect people who had the passion and pragmatism
to put an end to a brutal and broken system.
*Financial Times*
In Italy, the literature on Basaglia tends towards either
idealisation or demonisation-he's considered either a secular saint
or a dangerous radical. John Foot gives a much more rounded, and
fair, portrait of a complicated, committed man.
*Guardian*
However strong the spirit of 1968, it will not eradicate the
institutional impulse from human societies.
*First Things*
An excellent book
*Frugal Creativity*
Brings this diversity, richness and complexity to life in an
exemplary fashion, illuminating all its different manifestations
and contradictions... A triumph of committed scholarship
*TLS*
An important work by John Foot . should put to rest the
badly-informed, lazy narrative that still prevails to the effect
that Franco Basaglia was an idealist - an 'anti-psychiatrist' -
who, at a stroke, disempowered doctors to certify someone as insane
with disastrous results.
*Amazon*
John Foot stresses throughout his exemplary account [that] myth and
reality aren't easily separated in Basaglia's story... Foot
restores a critical distance that makes it possible to present
Basaglia's achievements as part of a wider story. In Italy, it took
more than one man to close the asylums.
*London Review of Books*
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