Homosexuals interned in the Casa della Divina Provvidenza, Bisceglie, 1922-1943
Journal title RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA
Author/s Gabriella Romano
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/2
Language Italian Pages 19 P. 161-179 File size 272 KB
DOI 10.3280/RSF2026-002010
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This research project aims to identify traces of Lombrosian thought in psychiatric practice in Southern Italy during the Fascist period. The intention is to find evidence of the pathologisation of passions and emotions linked by Cesare Lombroso (18351909) to “southernness” (meridionalità), which he regarded as genetically impulsive, passionate and instinctual, characterised by uncontrollable drives, precocious eroticism and promiscuity. Focusing on Apulia (Puglia), the medical records of patients admitted to the Bisceglie institution during the Fascist period were examined using a samplesearch metodology, owing to the absence of admission registers. The tendency to pathologise homosexuality emerged clearly from the analysis. However, the attention paid by Bisceglie psychiatrists to the patient’s emotional, sentimental and erotic sphere, although subject to moral judgement, reveals an interest in these aspects that was absent from other Italian asylums of the period.
Keywords: Homosexuality, Psychiatry, Fascism, Sexuality, Pathologisation.
Gabriella Romano, Mal d’archivio Internati/e omosessuali nella Casa della Divina Provvidenza di Bisceglie, 1922-1943 in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 2/2026, pp 161-179, DOI: 10.3280/RSF2026-002010