A double dream. Lombroso, Freud and women

Abstract

From a historical point of view, the Author analyzes Cesare Lombroso and Sigmund Freud’s opinions related to the role of women in society, highlighting affinities and common interests between the two illustrious scholars. They shared a cultural background of positivist and evolutionist ancestry that was strongly present in continental Europe at the time. The gender issue emerges both in Lombrosian criminology and in Freudian psychoanalysis, two systems of thought that follow each other temporally but which are part of a discursive path that has a profound impact on a rapidly transforming society, where the emancipation of women had become a disturbing matter. The Author compares the category of the “deviant/prostitute” woman prevalent in the fundamental book The Delinquent Woman (but also in minor Lombrosian writings), with statements present in Freud's works and in some minutes of meetings of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Ultimately, against the background of the two characters and their schools, the continuity with a patriarchal vision also linked to biographical affinities is highlighted, in which however female figures have had great importance.