About two cases of anthropophagy (1901, 1902). Forensic psychopathological diagnosis of the early twentieth century

Abstract

Summary In 1902, Pasquale Penta, physician and criminologist, presented an article entitled “About two cases of anthropophagy” on the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, Criminal Anthropology and Related Sciences. The cases presented, which occurred one in 1901 and the other in 1902, are of particular interest both for the rarity of cannibalism connected to the homicidal acts carried out by people suffering from serious psychiatric diseases and because they were among the first objects of psychiatric observation in Italy. The article described the “pathological cannibalism” under the forensic psychopathological and criminal anthropological points of view. From the analysis performed by Penta, it emerged an important difference between the murdered and the killing cannibal for the particular violence and brutality of the latter.