Abstract
Autore:
Palano Damiano
Titolo:
"La psicologia del terrorista. Cesare Lombroso e il delitto politico"
This article concerns the contribution of Cesare Lombroso to the late neneteenth-century debate on political delinquency and the deep psychological motives behind acts of terrorism. The theme of the political delinquent is of marginal importance but is nevertheless constantly present in the reflections of the founder of criminal anthropology, from the end of the ยด70s onwards. Introducing the "mattoide" type into his explanatory framework on the causes of crime, following the attempted regicide carried out by Giovanni Passananate, Lombroso began concerning himself both with the definition of political crime and with the specific function, in different circumstances, of rebels. Subsequently, with attention to the literature, to the studies of the Commune and to the works of Hippolyte Taine, Lombroso gradually proceeded to modify his original theses and to propose a framework centred on the idea of "political epilepsy". In so doing, the psychiatrist contributed not only to the construction of the image of a "fragmented" brain, but also to the definition of the new figure of the "enemy"
