In this work some aspects of dehumanization in psychiatry are considered. A first problem that involves the subjects with mental disease is that the dignity of the human being cannot be reled only to a full awareness and responsibility. Different aspects of dehumanization in psychiatry are then illustrated in the family context, through an analysis of the film Family life by Ken Loach (1971); in the context of the asylum, analyzed through some observations of the ’60s by Ervin Goffman and Franco Basaglia; with the opposition of Cardinal von Galen against extermination of the disabled people as operated by Nazism and his attempt to re-humanize the “worthless lives” emphasizing their similarity with that of his listeners and their relatives. The work ends with some considerations on the ways in which insidious mechanisms of dehumanization can affect even the life of today’s caring institutions.
