Archiv für Februar 2015

The constitution of the criminal lunatic. The story of Natale B at the criminal lunatic asylum of Aversa (1885-1905)

Marica Setaro
Using both a historical and an epistemological approach, the essay reconstructs the formation of the notion (and of the figure) of the „criminal lunatic“ inside the place of its confinement, the criminal lunatic asylum. Researching into the archival documents of the „Ospedale Psichiatrico Giudiziario“ of Aversa, the author investigates the reasons for the creation of such an institution, a mix of prison and lunatic asylum. The proliferation of criminal lunatic asylums in both Europe and Italy followed from (and also validated) the recognition of a new specific condition, that of the mentally disturbed who is not accountable for their actions and yet is socially dangerous. The anonymous and previously unpublished story of the criminal lunatic Natale B. serves the author’s more general purpose of illustrating how the modern psychiatric paradigm has conflated crime and madness, by elaborating knowledge and practices aimed at naming and classifying the anomalous and antisocial character of certain identities, of certain Selves.

Introduzione

Maddalena Carli

Spaces of the self: reflections on the «person» through placements in mental hospitals in Italy (XIX-XX century)

Vinzia Fiorino
This research, which is based on a sample of records from the former mental hospitals of Rome and Volterra, aims at giving an account of both the legal changes and the new perception of the individual. Spurred on by philosophical reflections and significant epistemological changes, around the 1960s there was an irreversible crisis of the traditional psychiatric paradigm based on the total objectification of the patient and on the impersonal and serial management of the „interned“ population. This specific context has proved to be crucial because it is at the centre of different and contradictory philosophical reflections on the subject: 1) in the first place, the establishment of phenomenology which highlighted the central importance of the person identified with all the manifestations of his/her existence; 2) secondly, the vital importance of the psychology of the «rational man» and seeing human existence as a «presence in the world»; 3) furthermore the free acceptance of psychoanalysis with its emphasis on the fragmentation or the different manifestations of the ego; 4) finally, «the investigation of the human being», recalling Michel Foucault, a reflection which however would end up stressing devices for controlling the individual.

The political-party system during the Portuguese First Republic (1910-1926)

Manuel Baioa
The Portuguese Republican Party became the dominant party in the political system of the Portuguese First Republic (1910-1926) due to historical, organizational, clientelist, violent and constitutional causes. The opposition felt it could hardly manage alternation via elections therefore resorted to violent and unconstitutional practices to reach the government. The Portuguese political parties modernized themselves in this period, but didn’t turn into mass parties. In major cities they acted as cadre party and in the rural area as a party of notables. During the First Republic they did not take consistent steps to democratize the political system. Portugal remained tied to the liberal and elitist tradition of the nineteenth century, although in a republican and revolutionary version.

A precariat charter: from denizens to citizens

Volume 56, Issue 1, February 2015, pages 101-103<br/>10.1080/0023656X.2015.994284<br/>George Ross

Shuttered factories and closed politics

Volume 56, Issue 1, February 2015, pages 70-75<br/>10.1080/0023656X.2015.993882<br/>Gerald Friedman

Empty mills: the fight against imports and the decline of the U.S. textile industry

Volume 56, Issue 1, February 2015, pages 69-69<br/>10.1080/0023656X.2015.993862<br/>Craig Phelan

Crucibles of black empowerment: Chicago’s neighborhood politics from the New Deal to Harold Washington

Volume 56, Issue 1, February 2015, pages 107-109<br/>10.1080/0023656X.2015.994294<br/>Gerald Friedman

Red Apple: Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York

Volume 56, Issue 1, February 2015, pages 111-113<br/>10.1080/0023656X.2015.994296<br/>Ronald D. Cohen

The end of industry?

Volume 56, Issue 1, February 2015, pages 89-94<br/>10.1080/0023656X.2015.993870<br/>Michael Hanagan