Application and effects of Italian Law 180, ‘The Reform of Psychiatric Care’

This chapter aims to begin an analytical study of the forms of treatment of psychiatric diseases and disorders after Law 180 of 1978. Historical analysis has focused on the history of asylums and psychiatry taking 1978 as a pivotal watershed. The subsequent period has been almost totally ignored, and little research has been done on the effects of the reform, or the ramifications and plurality of the anti-institutional movement. In many parts of Italy, after Law 180, there was experimentation with new models of welfare, which innovated and enriched clinical knowledge and practice. The chapter focuses on the application of the ‘Reform of Psychiatric Care’ and the medium- and long-term effects of deinstitutionalization. It looks at four main aspects: the process of deinstitutionalization and its timing; the provisions of the legislation; the institutional, political, social and economic players, and the relationships with local contexts, and the forms and phases of application both in the urban centres and in peripheries.