Bildwissenschaft and revolution. The story of Marco Cavallo and its significance in the history of psychiatry

This contribution explores the significance of Marco Cavallo in the history of psychiatry using Walter Benjamin’s concept of Bildwissenschaft. Here the concept of the image and the idea of fragmentation are seen as bringing to the surface certain thought-images (Denkbilder). As properly pre-theoretical (vor-weltlich) elements of our cognition, images operate revolutions: breaking from the familiar and opening a pathway to the exposure to shock [Chockerlebnis]. This gathers together the power of images to configure cognizability, as well as their possibility to rewrite history through the relationship of present to past. Marco Cavallo is offered as both image and metaphor for what is concealed behind mental health experiences, and as an image of the geography of “inside and outside”, both in terms of social and public spaces, as well as collective practices of care.