Franco Basaglia Beyond the Borders: Practices of Freedom

An international conference titled Franco Basaglia Beyond the Borders: Practices of Freedom will take place from 12 to 14 November 2025.

Franco Basaglia (1924–1980) started his journey of changing the institutional culture in Gorizia, right on the (iron) border. He transgressed the borders between normalcy and otherness, sanity and madness; yet also between the institution and the environment, community, between science and art, between professions, disciplines, between social and health, between generations. Today, as we GO! Borderless, these borders must be still transgressed.

He changed the culture and used the culture and art for change. Basaglian thought affirms the madness as a legitimate part of human existence and as a social and cultural phenomenon. Basaglian approach creates the culture of not excluding and establishes inclusive interactions. The professional culture is being challenged and changed by contesting the traditional professional mandates, by an imperative of being creative, the involvement in the community, by the necessity of working in teams, collaborating with diverse groups and actors.

Transgression is the art, the human art of change.

Topics

Franco Basaglia "beyond": the message and impact – Basaglia at the borders:

• Basaglia and Gorizia:
  • A restitution,
  • Borders between the institution and its environment: reclaiming of the Parco Basaglia.
• Basaglia beyond the borders of institutions:
  • His work, the utopia of reality, the optimism of practice,
  • The transformation of the asylum into the community services.
• Basaglia beyond the borders of knowledge:
  • The trajectory of life and ideas,
  • Criticism of psychiatry – philosophical, sociological and political roots.
• Basaglia on the frontiers of rights:
  • The new agents, subjects of care and citizenship,
  • Law 180 and restitution of citizens’ rights,
  • Third Sector: associations, cooperatives and social enterprises.
• Basaglia after Basaglia:
  • His legacy in current policies of mental health and in topic of rights,
  • New vulnerability and the intersectionality of exclusion.

 

The global impact of the Basaglian experience and the contemporary reality:

• Institutions, reforms and culture of freedom in Europe and beyond:
  • Reforms and policies – achievements and obstacles,
  • Deinstitutionalisation and transformation,
  • New subjects of change,
  • New services and methods.
• War and Peace Crimes. The role of the professional/ technician in troubled world:
  • Professionals as social agents in war and peace (revisiting Gramsci),
  • How to stop coercion and restraint,
  • Affirming rights, undoing wrongs – advocacy in action.
• Deinstitutionalisation as cultural action for freedom:
  • Culture and art as the means of change,
  • Art of deinstitutionalisation,
  • Deinstitutionalisation of art,
  • Politics of friendship.

 

New services and new forms of care in the community.

Presentation of experiences and projects.

Experiments of today, beyond the borders. Visit to Parco Basaglia and cross-border projects.

 

Events

• Film projections, presentation of books.

 

Registration to the conference: https://forms.gle/xy5VvZP2LzRyikT4A 

The registration fee for the conference is EUR 50.00. Students pay EUR 35.00.

For further information on the conference, please contact basaglia.conference@go2025.eu 

For further information on the project BASAGLIA and GO! 2025 please visit: https://www.go2025.eu/en/projects/basaglia 

For info on where to stay and where to eat: https://www.go2025.eu/it/discover/territorio-gorizia-nova-gorica?CLASS_TYPE=CLASS_TYPE_EVENT

Scientific committee:

• Jošt CAFUTA MAČEK, University of Ljubljana, Researcher at the Faculty of Social Works;
• Vito FLAKER, University of Ljubljana, Professor at the Faculty of Social Works;
• Roberto MEZZINA, World Federation for Mental Health, Vice President for Europe;
• Franco PERAZZA, Healthcare Agency n. 2 “Basso Isontina”, Department of Mental Health, former Director;
• Giuseppina SCAVUZZO, University of Trieste, Coordinator of the Master's degree in Architecture.

Organisational committee:

• Alina Carli, Javni Zavod GO! 2025, Project Manager;
• Marco Marinuzzi, EGTC GO, Project Manager for GO! 2025 – Coordinator of the activities in Italy;
• Stojan Pelko, Javni Zavod GO! 2025, Programme Director.

Photo: Harald Bischoff