Italian psychiatry in an international context: Ugo Cerletti and the case of electroshock

Taking as its starting point the Italian psychiatric context between the end of the nineteenth century and the firts years of the twentieth century, this essay analyses Italian psychiatry's steps towards a new theoretical and therapeutical framework. Focusin on Ugo Cerletti's work, this paper shows how this Italian renewal occured at the same tie as a process of internationalisation of psychiatric knowledge, practice and problems. Moving from Europe to United States, the author describes Cerletti's position towards the wide spread of a merely empirical and technical use of electric shock, and reconstructs an international debate on the divorce of ECT from research.