Nomi di folli e diversi nella narrativa di Mario Tobino

Abstract

The paper analyses the names of the mentally disabled persons in Mario Tobino’s narrative works dedicated to mental disease and to insane asylums. Through the onomastic choice in Le libere donne di Magliano (1953) and in Per le antiche scale (1972), the writer and psychiatrist from Viareggio shows his sympathetic attitude towards diseased people. He knows he can cure them only by a true and affectionate relationship. Through the analysis of the names given to the mentally ill, we can better understand Tobino’s human attitude, his poetics and his criticism of the Basaglia Law.