Arrigo Tamassia, l'inversione sessuale e la sessuologia italiana di fine Ottocento

In 1869 the German psychiatrist, Carl Westphal, published the first article on what he called conträre Sexualempfindung [contrary sexual feeling]. In Italy it was Arrigo Tamassia who first introduced the concept of sexual inversion in an article published in the Rivista Sperimentale di Freniatria in 1878. By writing this article, ‘Sull’inversione dell’istinto sessuale’, Tamassia began the process of pathologisation of homosexuality in Italy. My contribution contextualises Tamassia’s 1878 article within broader European medical debates of the time; provides a close analysis of Tamassia’s work on sexual inversion; outlines how Italian psychiatrists constructed homosexuality the end of the nineteenth century; and exposes the historical significance of such a construction