Criminology and psychoanalysis in Italy between the two world wars: testimonies about a forgotten relationship

Abstract

Generally, the developments of criminology and psychoanalysis between the end of the Nineteenth century and the first decades of the XX° are considered substantially separate; such interpretation is especially applied to relationships between Lombrosian scholars and the first Italian followers of Sigmund Freud. However, an accurate analysis of bibliographical and archival materials relevant to that period allows to describe a more articulated and manifold reality. Purpose of this paper is to reconstruct by an historical approach the relationships between criminologists and pioneers of psychoanalysis in Italy in the period between world wars, when Lombroso had died from a long time and an elder Freud had reached a worldwide notoriety. Especially after 1930 – despite a largely hostile political and cul-tural context – some considerable Italian exponents of criminology and psychoanalysis developed a lively and sometimes significant dialectics. Their comparison – although among increasing reticences and difficulties – continued, even after the dramatic beginning of racial persecutions, up to the war already begun.