The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia & the Revolution in Mental Health Care

Author's Talk: John Foot Writer and Professor of Modern Italian History, John Foot discusses his latest publication, The Man Who Closed the Asylums (Verso August 2015) - The fascinating story of Franco Basaglia, one of the key intellectual and cultural figures of 1960s counterculture—a contemporary of R.D. Laing who worked to overturn institutions from within and ended up transforming mental health care in Italy. Inspired by the writings of authors such as Primo Levi, R. D. Laing, Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault and Frantz Fanon, and the practices of experimental therapeutic communities in the UK, Basaglia’s seminal work as a psychiatrist and campaigner in Gorizia, Parma and Trieste fed into and substantially contributed to the national and international movement of 1968. In 1978 a law was passed (the ‘Basaglia law’) which sanctioned the closure of the entire Italian asylum system.
Admission
£10/£7 concessions/Member

Website
http://www.freud.org.uk/events/76028/the-man-who-closed-the-asylums-franco-basaglia-the-revolution-in-mental-health-care/

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/se000274?id=EVENT530625