#manicomio

MANICOMIO DI RACCONIGI

This magnificent abandoned psychiatric hospital was probably my favorite spot on our recent trip to Italy. The gorgeous windows, the seemingly endless corridors, the peeling paint on the walls, the creepy looking treatment rooms... They all contribute to an eerie atmosphere that leave you in awe.

The old asylum of Girifalco, Calabria, Italy

Segregated at home or locked up in a mental hospital, in Calabria as elsewhere. In the 1900s, the families of the "crazy" had few alternatives. They had to keep them hidden, reassure the residents, escape glances and compassionate glances. Or interne them. The need for a language less inclined to barbarism had not yet arisen. There was no discussion about whether it was more correct to call them disabled, differently abled or people with disabilities. They defined them as "spastic", "handicapped", "psychologically abnormal". These terms covered a wide range of cases, from Down syndrome to mental retardation, through physical impairments and personality disorders. Some people even still mistook brain pain for demonic possession.

"I'll lock you up in Girifalco"

The village of Girifalco, starting from the second half of the 19th century, thus became an antonomasia. If Gorgonzola is synonymous with cheese and Verona evokes the love of Romeo and Juliet, "I'll lock you up in Girifalco" in Calabria meant that your head wasn't well and you risked ending up in a mental hospital. Today the stigma of mental distress remains. Those who suffer from it tend to dissemble. And his relatives surround him with a silent protective cloak.

Yet the climate around psychiatric pathologies seems to have changed in part. The credit goes to the much reviled Seventies: the decade of "We want everything" and of the insurrection against the powers of the State also imposed civil conquests and unprecedented rights: the workers' statute, divorce, termination of pregnancy. And law 180 of 1978, which then led to the closure of mental asylums.

The subverted stereotype

This town has been able to overturn the prevailing prejudices surrounding mental distress. From the beginning, in fact, the management of the mental hospital favored the coexistence of patients with the rest of the population and a therapeutic path based on open doors and ergotherapy, i.e. treatment based on collective work. It is a town that lives and has built its own identity in its relationship with madness. They also established a literary prize that chose madness as its theme.

Source: Matti da slegare: i prigionieri del silenzio a Reggio e Girifalco