Massimo Tornabene’s essay argues that the peculiarity of wars in the twentieth century is undoubtedly the recognition of war traumas. So-called «shell shock» that affected soldiers in the first world war has been widely studied in the literature (Gibelli, Leed). Access to the archives of former psychiatric hospitals has recently become possible. In this case the records of the inmates of the mental hospital of Racconigi (Cuneo) for the period 1938-1947 has made it possible to enquire into the impact on the civilians’ psyche of the second world war and to analyze the relationships between psychiatric hospitals and fascist institutions.

Massimo Tornabene, in "PASSATO E PRESENTE" 73/2008, pp. 41-63, DOI: