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Paper Short Abstract:

This paper aims to understand how Ernesto de Martino's thinking became the epistemological basis of ethnopsychiatry in Italy through the dialog between anthropology and psychoanalysis, and how his theory can be regarded as a “decolonial” framework for cultural interpretations of subjectivity.

Paper Abstract:

The role of culture in the conceptualization, development, and treatment of mental disorders became a global topic during the Cold War. However, this mediation between social aspects and psychopathology varied, following different paths.

This paper aims to understand how Ernesto de Martino's thinking became the epistemological basis of ethnopsychiatry in Italy, especially through the dialog between anthropology and psychoanalysis. Demartinian theory can be regarded as a “decolonial” foundational framework for cultural interpretations of subjectivity, as well as for the expression and management of psychological suffering. This perspective transcends the diagnostic manuals established by Anglo-Saxon psychiatry.

In this paper, I will analyze some of his publications regarding the mythical-ritual aspects of the Italian South (tarantism), specifically his book entitled “The Land of Remorse”, published in 1961. The Italian anthropologist established an epistemological break with the psy sciences of the time by understanding tarantism as an autonomous and legitimate symbolical-ritual language used by a population struggling to cope with subjective suffering, instead of considering this phenomenon as a physiological or mental pathology. De Martino is recognized for his historical contributions to anthropology and ethnopsychiatry, and as a forerunner in the Italian context of what I call a “decolonization of mental health”.