Franco Basaglia - Works

Works

A first considerable report by Franco Basaglia was titled The destruction of the Mental Hospital as a place of institutionalisation and presented by him on the First International Congress of Social Psychiatry held in London in 1964. In this report Basaglia stated that 'the psychiatrist of today seems to have discovered, suddenly, that the first step towards the cure of the patient is his return to liberty of which, until now, the psychiatrist himself had deprived him’ and that ‘it is true that the discovery of liberty is the most obvious that Psychiatry could reach.’ In conclusion Basaglia tried to fix some points in an attempt to form a lever for discovering liberty:

1. Pression on the administration, on which the hospital depends, by the involved action of joint responsibility for the situation previously maintained.
2. The awakening of conscience and of joint responsibility on the part of the doctors who have accepted and preserved this situation.
3. The introduction of drugs by means of which, notwithstanding the institutionalised climate, the breaking of the "bond" of the patients was made possible.
4. The attempt at re-education—theoretical and humane—of the nurses (this however is still far from having been reached).
5. The keeping alive—as far as possible—of the ties of the patient with the world outside (family, friends, interests).
6. The opening of the doors, and the beginning of life according to the open door system.
7. The creation of presuppositions of the Day Hospital, soon to be opened, as a part-time service.

In 1968, L’istituzione negata (‘The Institution Denied’), edited by Franco Basaglia, came out of press. Widely read all over Italy, this book not only documented and analyzed the changes at Gorizia but also carried anti-institutional debate into other areas: factories, universities and schools.