Basaglia's International Legacy: From Asylum to Community

Franco Basaglia (1924-1980) was an Italian psychiatrist and activist who proposed the dismantling of psychiatric hospitals and pioneered new ideas about mental health and its treatment. Basaglia was also one of the principal proponents of Italy's Law 180, which effectively closed down large mental hospitals in Italy. His ideas and his disciples have had a decisive influence in the move away from institutional care in many parts of the world, particularly in continental Europe and South America. However, Basaglia is strikingly absent from the literature in Germanic and Anglophone psychiatry. Most of the literature about Basaglia in the last 40 years has been published by his followers and supporters and has often been largely positive, with little exploration of differing responses or possible limitations of his model.

Basaglia's International Legacy: From Asylum to Community provides an overview of current thinking and the international influence of Franco Basaglia. This resource draws on the combined knowledge of clinicians, policy makers, historians, and social scientists, including a handful of Basaglia's collaborators. It provides an in-depth understanding and critical analysis of the various applications of his thinking worldwide. Organised into three broad sections, chapters examine Basaglia's work and influence in Italy; in the 'Basaglian' countries of Europe and South America; and in those countries where his influence has either been rejected or significantly modified. The Editors bring together the contributions and draw out the important messages (both positive and negative) for current clinical practice and development within international mental health services.

Tom Burns, Professor Emeritus of Social Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom,John Foot, Professor of Modern Italian History, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

Tom Burns is Professor Emeritus of Social Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at University College London. He has published eight books and over 300 papers. iOur Necessary Shadow: The Nature and Meaning of Psychiatry, his book on psychiatry for the general reader, was published by Penguin in 2014. He was awarded the CBE in 2006 for services to mental health care.


Professor John Foot's work focuses predominantly on contemporary Italy. He has published research in urban history, the history of sport, and memory studies, often directed at the general reader. From 2010 he carried out research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, into the life and work of the radical psychiatrist Franco Basaglia. This led to the publication of his book, The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care. Professor Foot is currently working on a history of Italian fascism.

1. Franco Basaglia: A Man, A Movement, Institutions and Outcomes, John Foot
2. Basaglia and the British anti-psychiatrists: Two radically different projects, 1960-70, Ois?n Wall
3. Basaglia after Basaglia: Recovery, human rights, and Trieste today, Roberto Mezzina
4. Basaglia s legacy and italian mental healthcare today, Angelo Fioritti
5. Basaglia s international influence, Benedetto Saraceno and Sashi P. Sashidharan
6. The impact of Basaglia and the Italian psychiatric reform in Latin America, Jos? Miguel Caldas de-Almeida
7. The optimism of practice: Impacts of Basaglia's thoughts on Brazil, Ernesto Venturini, Maria Stella Brand?o Goulart, and Paulo Amarante
8. From the asylum to community mental health services: The path to human rights, Diana Mauri and Alejandra Barcala
9. Spain: The critical movements and the influence of Franco Basaglia and Democratic Psychiatry, V?ctor Aparicio Basauri
10. Franco Basaglia's influence on the Greek mental health system, Theodoros Megaloeconomou
11. The UK s rejection of Basaglia, Tom Burns
12. Franco Basaglia: Another Conspicuous Non-Event in the History of Psychiatry in Irelanda, Brendan D. Kelly
13. Asylum: a magazine for Democratic Psychiatry in England, Helen Spandler
14. Visions of Another World : Franco Basaglia and the German Reform, Chantal Marazia, Heiner Fangerau, Thomas Becker, and Felicitas S?hner
15. Has the spirit of Basaglia affected Polish psychiatrya, Jacek Moskalewicz, Grazyna Herczynska, and Katarzyna Prot-Klinger
16. A spectre for some, a Mecca for others: The impact of Basaglia in the Netherlands, Gemma Blok
17. Basaglia in France: The marginality of exemplarity, Nicolas Henckes and Anne M. Lovell
18. Borderline Deinstitutionalisation: Yugoslav Resonance and Dissonance with Basaglia, Vito Flaker, Vladimir Jovi?, Nata a Cvetkovi? Jovi?, and Andreja Rafaeli?
19. The Trieste Model: Obstacles to Replication in San Francisco, Robert Okin
20. Deinstitutionalisation, welfare state and social engineering: Basaglia in the Swedish context, Alain Topor
21. Making sense of Basaglia:Cross-cutting themes and unresolved issues, Tom Burns and John Foot