Candida Carrino. Filthy, restless, criminal women. One Century of female internment (1850 – 1950). Roma, Carocci Editore, 2018

Abstract

Candida Carrino analyzes female psychiatric internment in Italy from 1850 to 1950. The chronological choice isn’t certainly casual: the middle of the XIX Century, in fact, sees psychiatric sciences and hospitals under the hegemony of Positivism, while the 1950s mark a decisive turn because of the introduction of psychotropic drugs, that change both medical practices and people’s cultural images of female psychic disease. The most original aspect of the essay is Carrino’s ability in employing her main source – the medical records – in the aim of showing the multiplicity of actors who play a role in every story of female psychiatric internment.