A Psychiatric Comparative Analysis of Left and Right-Wing Terrorism in Italy

Abstract

Over the last fifteen years, terrorism has severely attacked Italian society. It has proved to be a complex and deeply-rooted phenomenon, with political, social and economic aspects, and with a polymorphic phenomenology. The response of the State, developed over the years, has been progressively more effective, particularly vis-a-vis control and has gained major successes: many right and left-wing terrorists have been arrested and entire terrorist organizations have been irreversibly eradicated and have ceased to exist. Table 1 shows the number of terrorists in prison and of known terrorists at large on May 1983.