Archive | 2019
“L’alienato nella cella è libero.” Mario Tobino Between Le libere donne di Magliano and Per le antiche scale
Abstract
By analyzing Le libere donne di Magliano (1953) and Per le antiche scale (1972), this chapter offers a critical insight of Tobino’s conception of the asylum as a response to mental illness. Framing his thought in relation to these two works, this chapter illustrates and analyzes his position regarding the debate that surrounded Law 180 of 1978 and its underlying principles during the so-called years of alienation. The analysis claims that Tobino, a psychiatrist with vacillating ideas and a problematic attitude towards his female patients, should have no further weight in the discussion that still today, on its fortieth anniversary, revolves around the closure of asylums in Italy.