The resonances of literature, art, and the humanities with psychiatry since the 1960s are a cultural and political phenomenon that can hardly be understood without examining the media in which they arose. A less well-known example of this connection is the photobook. Starting with Franco and Franca Basaglia’s 1969 anti-psychiatric classic Morire di classe (Dying by Class), I will analyze a number of photobooks, arguing that their political message results from their specific juxtapositions of humanities knowledge, literary techniques, and photography.
