Massimo Fagioli (Monte Giberto, 19 May 1931 - Rome, 13 February 2017) was an Italian psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He is best known for his “Human Birth Theory” which aims to define the roots and causes of mental illness in order to propose a structure for diagnosis and psychotherapeutic cure. Fagioli drew his theory from a theoretical framework that encompasses both the physiology of birth and the beginning of human thought.Calesini I, "Fagioli's Human Birth Theory and the possibility to cure mental illness", in "International Journal of Environment and Health", vol 8, n 3, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1504/IJENVH.2017.086188; Mariopaolo D, Del Missier G, Stocco E, Testa E, "Psichiatria e psicoterapia in Italia dall'Unità ad oggi", L'Asino D'Oro, Roma, 2016. He is also known for the “Analisi Collettiva”, a form of psychotherapeutic group practice that he ran continuously for more than 40 years between January 1975 and December 2016. His medical theory and practice represent the core of “Il sogno della farfalla” psychiatric periodical.
Biography
Fagioli was born on 19 May 1931 in Monte Giberto, a commune situated near Fermo, Marche. During the World War II he was a partisan runner, fighting on the battlefield alongside his father, a medical doctor and surgeon. He graduated in medicine and surgery in Rome in 1956 and then specialised in Neuropsychiatry in Modena.Left, 2/18/2017. He died on 13 February 2017.
Medical career
In 1957 Fagioli worked at psychiatric hospitals in Venice, where he was soon disappointed by the organicist practice, a methodology directly inherited from 19th century psychiatry. In 1960 he decided to move to Padua, where he studied and worked with Ferdinando Barison, one of the most important psychiatrists of that time.Mariopaolo D, Del Missier G, Stocco E, Testa E, "Psichiatria e psicoterapia in Italia dall'Unità ad oggi", L'Asino D'Oro, Roma, 2016. By “breaking down the ward’s wall” and living with his patients, Fagioli found a new approach. In 1963 he led a psychotherapeutic community at Ludwig's Binswanger's clinic Bellevue in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. The hospital was then directed by Binswanger's homonymous nephew, father of the existential therapy.Mariopaolo D, Del Missier G, Stocco E, Testa E, "Psichiatria e psicoterapia in Italia dall'Unità ad oggi", L'Asino D'Oro, Roma, 2016.
After gaining experience in the public sector, Fagioli moved to Rome and started his own private psychotherapeutic practice. Building on many theoretical and empirical studies, Fagioli's 1962 paper “Some notes on paranoid and schizophrenic delusional perception” ("Alcune note sulla percezione delirante paranoicale e schizofrenica")Fagioli M, "Alcune note sulla percezione delirante paranoicale e schizofrenica", in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 3, 2009, pp. 9-22. introduced the first results of his research. A decade later he would then publish the first volume of his theoretical work, “Death Instinct and Knowledge” ("Istinto di Morte e Conoscenza").Fagioli M, "Istinto di Morte e Conoscenza", L'Asino D'Oro, Roma, 2017. Typewritten copies of this book started circulating at the end of the 1970. Because of its theoretical propositions which were in stark opposition to the psychoanalytic orthodoxy, Massimo Fagioli was expelled from the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (Società Psicoanalitica Italiana). “Death Instinct and Knowledge” and the following books “The Puppet and the Marionette” ("La Marionetta e il Burattino")Fagioli M, "La Marionetta e il Burattino", L'Asino D'Oro, Roma, 2011. and “Human Birth Theory and Human Castration” ("Teoria della Nascita e Castrazione Umana")Fagioli M, "Teoria della Nascita e Castrazione Umana", L'Asino D'Oro, Roma, 2012. constitute a theoretical trilogy of what he would then call “The Human Birth Theory”.
The beginning of the Analisi Collettiva
In 1975 Fagioli was appointed supervisor of a psychiatrists’ group, on behalf of the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of Rome, La Sapienza. During these sessions, an ever-increasing number of people started joining in. Some participants worked in the psychiatric field while others came from different backgrounds such as extra-parliamentary left-wing movements, but also from the working class and Rome's artistic scene. From the initial session set at once per week, Fagioli increased the number up to four. This change marked the beginning of what became known as the Analisi Collettiva. Since its early years, this form of psychotherapeutic group drew the attention of the media, due in particular to Fagioli harsh criticism towards Sigmund Freud.
Free access and participants’ anonymity were the most important features of this psychotherapeutic practice. Fagioli was not interested in the patient's social identity but rather in the human dynamic that could arise in the rapport during the group-analytic setting. After the first few years, the director of the Sapienza Psychiatry Institute, Giancarlo Reda, asked Fagioli to end the sessions. In response to this command, in November 1980 Fagioli decided to leave the university and carry on the Analisi Collettiva sessions in his own private studio in Via di Roma Libera 23, in the Roman neighbourhood Trastevere. In the same year, a book based on an interview with Fagioli, “Child, Woman and Man’s Transformation” ("Bambino, donna e trasformazione dell'uomo") was published.Fagioli M, "Bambino, donna e trasformazione dell'uomo", L'Asino D'Oro, Roma, 2013.
Cinema, architecture and sculpture
During the first years of the Analisi Collettiva, Fagioli collaborated with the Italian film director Marco Bellocchio. From the second half of the 1980s onwards, they worked together on the films Devil in the Flesh (1986), The Conviction (1991) and The Butterfly’s Dream (1994). Their first work, Devil in the Flesh, which harshly criticised left-wing ideas, received a critical reception. Fagioli was in fact accused of manipulating Bellocchio during the making of the film. However, Bellocchio always denied these accusations. A few years later, The Conviction became a subject of great controversy, being defined by the media as an apology of rape, but both Fagioli and Bellocchio responded in defence of their work. Despite this, the film was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 1991. After these three works, Bellocchio went on taking part in the Analisi Collettiva, while working on new projects.
In addition to his work with Marco Bellocchio, in 1997 Massimo Fagioli wrote, directed and produced the soundtrack of the film Il cielo della luna. The film was presented at the Locarno Film Festival, while his second work, the documentary “Does psychiatry exist?” was screened at Farnese Cinema in Rome in 2003.
Fagioli's artistic work also includes sculpture and architecture. In 2005 he designed the “Blue Sculpture”, that was exhibited at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Rome La Sapienza.http://video.associazioneamorepsiche.org/2005/11/conferenza-stampa-scultura-blu-universita-la-sapienza-di-roma-22-novembre-2005/ . As an architect he produced the “Palazzetto Bianco” in collaboration with the architects Paola Rossi and Francoise Bliek.https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://www.associazioneamorepsiche.org/archiviostampa/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/il-palazzetto-bianco.pdf&hl=it, http://www.openhouseroma.org/2017/sito/palazzetto-bianco.html . This project appeared in different volumes of selected works such as “Rome’s Wonders: from the Renaissance to the present day” ("Le meraviglie di Roma: dal Rinascimento ai giorni nostri") realised by Vittorio Sgarbi.Sgarbi V, "Le meraviglie di Roma. Dal Rinascimento ai giorni nostri", Bompiani, Milano, 2011. But see also Presistenza Puglisi L (eds), "Palazzetto Bianco-Roma”, "ItaliArchitettura” - opere selezionate, UTET - scienze tecniche, Vol. n°2, 2010; Uribe Gonzàlez M (eds), papers by M. Locci, F.Pagano, S.Panti, E.Zichella, introduction by F.Purini, "Roma CITTA’ CAPOLAVORO – Guida Architettonica", Prospettive Edizioni, 2009. However, amongst his architectural projects, “The Fountain” ("La Fontana"), built in Largo Ettore Rolli for the neighbourhood urban renewal, gained less recognition. Due to the lack of maintenance required for water monuments, the fountain was criticised by some experts - among them the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi himself and some of the area's inhabitants.
Politics
Over the years, Fagioli was actively involved in the political scene, collaborating with many left-wing political supporters, newspapers and periodicals. His political activity was mainly intellectual, aiming to propose a new cultural and anthropological perspective for the left.Del Missier G, “Massimo Fagioli, l’Analisi Collettiva, e la sinistra italiana. 1979 - 2011” in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 1, 2017, pp. 41 - 69. His views led him to face conflicts and inevitable clashes with political exponents. In 1975 he gave a lecture on Das Kapital by Karl Marx at the University of Siena, whilst between the years 1979 and 1981 he collaborated both with the Italian Communist Party and with Lotta Continua newspaper.Del Missier G, “Massimo Fagioli, l’Analisi Collettiva, e la sinistra italiana. 1979 - 2011” in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 1, 2017, pp. 41 - 69.
Fagioli is the author of a large number of articles addressed and published on Lotta Continua. All the articles were subsequently collected in the periodical “Il sogno della Farfalla”.Fagioli M, “Realtà umana dell’artista e opera d’arte”, in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 4, 2001, pp. 5 - 11; Fagioli M, “Intervista a Radio Città”, in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 4, 2001, pp. 11 - 24; Fagioli M, “Possibilità e realtà di un lavoro psichico di realizzazione, trasformazione e sviluppo”, in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 4, 2001, pp. 25 - 34; Fagioli M, “Venticinque anni dopo. Interviste e scritti di Massimo Fagioli su “Lotta Continua”. 1979 - 1981”, in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 1, 2005, p. 5. Towards the end of the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s he was involved in political debates with Fausto Bertinotti, the secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party. Later on, Fagioli came in touch with the Italian Radical Party, through the periodical Quaderni Radicali and more specifically and personally with Marco Pannella and Emma Bonino.Del Missier G, “Massimo Fagioli, l’Analisi Collettiva, e la sinistra italiana. 1979 - 2011” in “Il sogno della farfalla”, 1, 2017, pp. 41 - 69.
University Research and the Publishing House
From 2002 to 2012 he gave lectures at the Gabriele D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara. From 2006 until 25 February 2017 he wrote a weekly column for the Left periodical (the articles that appeared on 17th and 25 February were published posthumously). On 30 October and 6 November 2015 a two-day conference took place in the lecture hall of the La Sapienza University of Rome to celebrate the Analisi Collettiva 40th anniversary; the conference's talks were then collected and published by the publishing house L’Asino d’Oro.AA.VV., “Ricerca sulla verità della nascita umana. 40 anni di Analisi Collettiva”, L’Asino D’Oro, Roma, 2016.
The Human Birth Theory