Mente E Lavoro. Le Prime Ricerche in Italia Fra Laboratorio E Officina

Abstract

Taking as its starting point Angelo Mosso's studies of muscular and mental work carried out in Turin at the end of the nineteenth century, this essay focuses on early Italian investigations of the psycho-physical attitudes of workers undertaken by Mosso's pupils Zaccaria Treves and Mariano Luigi Patrizi in the fields of medicine and psychophysiology between the end of the nineteenth century and the first ten years of the twentieth century. In particular, the author is interested in delineating the differences between the various methodological approaches of these studies and in indicating their different ideological meanings, whose origins lie in the various facets of the materialistic philosophy of Italian scientific and postivist culture.

The historiography of psychology of Italy.

“…In particular, analyses have been done of the following: (a) the relationship between psychology and psychiatry, and the determining role played in the birth of the discipline by the old psychiatric institutions (especially the San Lazzaro Mental Asylum of Reggio Emilia; Babini, 1996b; Guarnieri, 1998); (b) the debate on the psychophysics research and theories developed in Italy at the end of the 19th century (De Liguori, 1986, 1987, 1998); 20 (c) the theoretical-methodological orientation of philosophical psychology, represented by scholars such as De Sarlo, Aliotta, and Rignano, which denotes an intermediate tendency between the psychology inspired by the natural sciences on the one hand, and on the other hand the speculative psychology traditionally linked to philosophy (Sava, 2000); (d) the pragmatist perspective in psychology, which, inspired by the American pragmatism of Peirce and James and filtered through Vailati and Calderoni, partially finds its expression in the work of Ferrari (Dal Pra, 1984; Luccio, 1980; Santucci, 1963, 1992, 1993, 1996b; cf. Marhaba, 1981); (e) the theme of scholastic and professional orientation, of the evaluation and measurement of educational and occupational aptitudes, otherwise known as psychotechnics , involving many Italian psychologists, such as Mosso, Patrizi, Della Valle, Ferrari, De Sanctis, Banissoni, Ponzo, and Gemelli (Avallone, 1994; Lombardo, Pompili, & Mammarella, 2002; Passione, 2001; Sinatra, 1997, 1999; Spaltro, 1966, 1974); (f) the genesis and progress of the psychology of development and of education (Lucarelli, 1993; Trombetta, 1989, 1993, 2002); (g) the formulation of the problem of a crowd psychology and the origin of collective psychology (Cornacchioli & Spadafora, 2000; Mucchi Faina, 1983, 2002; Sensales, 2003); and (h) the question of the crisis of psychology between the two world wars (Cimino, 1998; Ferruzzi, 1998). There have also been some more general works of synthesis (Cattonaro, 1996; Ceccarelli, 1999b; Di Giovanni, 2003; Legrenzi & Luccio, 1994, part III; Lombardo & Foschi, 1997; Luccio, 1990; Mecacci, 1998b; Mucciarelli, 1982–1984; Perussia, 1994; Poggi, 1985; Soro, 1999), culminating in a history of Italian psychology presented through the intellectual biographies of its main protagonists (Cimino & Dazzi, 1998).…”