Il protagonismo dei pazienti Europa senza manicomi. La 180 da Roma a Strasburgo Un sogno in presenza della ragione

A future Europe, free, open, democratic, pacific and which believes in solidarity and psychiatry without asylums, is a reasonable dream, if one takes into account the Italian law 180 (on the closure of asylums) and the tireless efforts, since 1978, of citizens, politicians, local officials, trade union leaders, families, students, journalists, artists and above all patients the true leaders of the Italian psychiatric revolution all people that believed, and still believe, in the possibility of building a different world. Recently, a further event reinforced this dream. During a meeting organized by Psichiatria Democratica (PD, a political and cultural movement that fought for the closure of asylums in Italy) the honorary president of PD read out an appreciative letter sent by the president of the Italian state Giorgio Napolitani. The Author travelling back from Strasbourg with a group of patients, family members and mental health workers, after a meeting with the president of the European parliament Josep Borrell recalls some key experiences of patient leadership in Italy. The active participation of patients, vulnerable persons, however not anymore hommes infâmes, has radically modified the traditional understanding of psychiatry, transforming the history and biography of the mental health services. Thanks to the battle against asylums - the acquisition of rights and the capacity to appreciate the patients’ point of view - the concept of pathology has changed and consequently the patient, the crazy or mad person, now represents the other facet of normality.

Luigi Attenasio, Il protagonismo dei pazienti Europa senza manicomi. La 180 da Roma a Strasburgo Un sogno in presenza della ragione in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 3/2007, pp 93-110, DOI: