“A Newspaper of Considerable Interest” in Essex and “Sotto-Pancia” in Florence. Two Pioneering and Forgotten Publications, Edited by People in Psychiatric Institutions

Abstract

It is surprising that some periodicals, edited by people with mental illness in various psychiatric settings, date back almost two centuries. First in large psychiatric institutions as an integral part of moral treatment, to make the leap more recently to other community settings, such as day hospitals and therapeutic communities. However, despite its long history and having survived the different theoretical and clinical models, being a faithful reflection of its postulates and methods, it is striking the little case and interest aroused in academic fields in relation to its study and conservation, having lost many of those publications for the future. The work aims to rescue from oblivion two of those pioneering periodicals. One, “a newspaper of considerable interest” in Essex (England), which would claim for itself the honour of being the first of these characteristics in history, displacing from that position the Retreat Gazette of Connecticut (United States). The second, the Sotto-Pancia, in Florence, which preceded to the Diario dell ‘ospizio di San Benedetto promoted by Lombroso in Pesaro, that was considered so far the first in Italy.