Archiviare la follia. Testimonianze documentarie di età moderna

Rapetti Mariangela

First

2020-01-01

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Abstract

Archival science, a discipline that is committed to safeguarding and conserving memory, is perhaps more successful in this context than in others in demonstrating its social role. The archivist, who participates in the restitution of memory to the community, who helps to present to society what happened beyond the gates of mental hospitals, is an active part in combating the social stigma of mental illness. Just as it has been studied by doctors, philosophers and historians, and just as it has been narrated and represented by literature and art, madness has entered the archive, and must have entered the archive, in some way, even before the advent of psychiatry and mental asylums. The essay offers a contribution to archival research on madness in the modern age.