Acteurs et pratiques de la psychiatrie coloniale : le cas de la Libye italienne

Abstract

This article analyses the developments of psychiatry in the Italian overseas territories in the first half of the 20th century. After an analysis of the attributes characterizing this branch of the discipline (colonial, ethnographic, comparative, racial), it describes the mental health facilities deployed in Libya : the transfer of patients to asylums in Italy first and later the opening of specific structures in situ, between penitentiary and mental prophylaxis aims. The theories developed on the “indigenous mind” and its pathological deviations are also examined, as well as the practices that linked caregivers, patients, and families.

Keywords

• psychiatry
• Italy
• Libya
• 20th century
• colonial knowledge