IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v69y2023i5p1090-1099.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Debating asylum psychiatry: Did Szasz misrepresent the Basaglian psychiatric project?

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Balbuena Rivera

Abstract

Background: The Italian anti-institutional psychiatric movement is closely associated with the name of F. Basaglia, whom Szasz in his 188-page essay on antipsychiatry labels a ‘real phony’ (in similar terms to others considered antipsychiatrists such as D. Cooper, R. Laing, E. Goffman and M. Foucault). Specifically, Szasz says of Basaglia and his work in psychiatry that it’s a ‘prevarication-illusion about the end of asylum psychiatry in Italy’. Aim/objective: The aim of this paper is to determine whether Szasz’s assessments were reliably based on scholarly knowledge of Basaglia’s psychiatric work, or can better be attributed to Szasz’s misrepresentation of his Italian colleague. Methods: In considering this question, the paper is timely but, more importantly, it is also unique in considering Basaglia and Szasz together. It is beyond the scope of this article to examine Basaglia’s career in detail, and references to it will be made only to clarify Szasz’s assertions regarding Basaglia. Results and conclusions: As I will show here, Szasz misconstrued the Basaglian project for a new kind of psychiatry, and for the transformation and closure of the old asylum system. This erroneous view of Basaglia by Szasz is partly associated with his idea that Basaglia and other antipsychiatrists were supported by the modern socialist-therapeutic State.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Balbuena Rivera, 2023. "Debating asylum psychiatry: Did Szasz misrepresent the Basaglian psychiatric project?," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(5), pages 1090-1099, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:69:y:2023:i:5:p:1090-1099
    DOI: 10.1177/00207640221143915
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640221143915
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00207640221143915?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francisco Balbuena, 2022. "The silence of Laing and its echo in Szasz’s essay on antipsychiatry," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(7), pages 1307-1314, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:69:y:2023:i:5:p:1090-1099. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.