On May 13, 1978, Law 180 marked the beginning of the end for Italy’s asylums. A social movement that had begun in 1961 finally reached parliament, securing the support of all parties except the neofascists. The law is often known as the “Basaglia law,” owing to the central role of the radical psychiatrist Franco Basaglia in driving a new approach to mental health.

Basaglia’s revolution began at an asylum in Gorizia, northeastern Italy. Like many others at the time, it was structured around the architecture and paraphernalia of containment. There were cages for unruly patients, straitjackets, portable electroshock machines, and storerooms for personal belongings that were often never collected. But Basaglia created a movement that broke down these walls of repression, in his workplace and beyond.

Introducing a radical democracy in the asylum, Basaglia allowed psychiatric patients to speak for themselves, in the heart of one of the most antidemocratic institutions imaginable. This cultural revolution was a precursor for ’68. People came from around the world to see the patient assemblies. But Basaglia did not want to create what he called a “golden cage,” prettifying the hospital. Rather, he aimed to destroy the whole psychiatric hospital system.