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A clinic of lack : Franco Basaglia, biopolitics and the Italian psychiatric reform

Tarabochia, Alvise Sforza (2011) A clinic of lack : Franco Basaglia, biopolitics and the Italian psychiatric reform. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis, University of Kent. (doi:10.22024/UniKent/01.02.94645) (KAR id:94645)

Abstract

In this thesis, I propose a new reading of the work of Franco Basaglia, the psychiatrist responsible for Law 18011978, which, to date, makes Italy the only country in the world where psychiatry does not rely on asylums. Basaglia's oeuvre has often been divided into two periods: his early philosophical self-education, revolving around the rethinking of the psychiatrist-patient relationship in terms of intersubjectivity, and his subsequent 'political activism', centred on his struggle against institutional psychiatry and his reformation of the latter, which culminates in Law 180. Critics have overlooked the structural continuity between these two phases. Such an interpretative division has produced a fragmented reading of Basaglia's work, which I endeavour to overcome in my thesis. I aim at establishing a solid connection between Basaglia's 'theory of the subject', which I compare to Lacan's, and Basaglia's activity of de-institutionalisation, which is indebted to Foucault's reflection on disciplinary power and psychiatry. The notion of the 'subject', according to both Basag1ia and Lacan, revolves around a constitutional lack: as human beings we lack the very possibility of being without the other. While for Foucault this notion is nothing other than an effect of power-knowledge relations, for Basaglia and Lacan subjectivity as lack entails a constitutional participation in otherness. My claim is that this stance anticipates Roberto Esposito's biopolitical notion of communitas, as the 'place' where subjects lose their illusory individual subjectivity to actively embrace intersubjectivity. The formation of a communitas prevents an excess of immunisation. On the contrary, the extreme consequence of withdrawing from otherness by objectifying the patient is the creation of an organicist thanatopolitical psychiatry. This is why I propose to call Basaglia's practical and theoretical work a 'clinic of lack', an affirmative biopolitical psychiatry centred on the idea that subjects are constitutionally lacking.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD))
DOI/Identification number: 10.22024/UniKent/01.02.94645
Additional information: This thesis has been digitised by EThOS, the British Library digitisation service, for purposes of preservation and dissemination. It was uploaded to KAR on 25 April 2022 in order to hold its content and record within University of Kent systems. It is available Open Access using a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) licence so that the thesis and its author, can benefit from opportunities for increased readership and citation. This was done in line with University of Kent policies (https://www.kent.ac.uk/is/strategy/docs/Kent%20Open%20Access%20policy.pdf). If you feel that your rights are compromised by open access to this thesis, or if you would like more information about its availability, please contact us at ResearchSupport@kent.ac.uk and we will seriously consider your claim under the terms of our Take-Down Policy (https://www.kent.ac.uk/is/regulations/library/kar-take-down-policy.html).
Subjects: P Language and Literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
SWORD Depositor: SWORD Copy
Depositing User: SWORD Copy
Date Deposited: 14 Jul 2023 10:27 UTC
Last Modified: 14 Jul 2023 10:27 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/94645 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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