B8874 - Semiotics of Psychopatologies (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to develop semiotic skills for understanding the perceptual, affective, and cognitive dimensions of psychopathologies, as well as the discourses built to describe and understand them. The course provides a dual focus: first, it offers an overview of psychopathological literature from a philosophical perspective, reinterpreted through semiotic theories. Second, it equips students with tools to analyze the relationship between patients' expressive forms (including narratives, poetry, speech, and artistic productions), their lived experiences, and the surrounding sociocultural context.

Course contents

The course of this year will begin with a general overview of the role of semiotics in understanding psychopathology, emphasizing how psychiatric and psychological knowledge is embedded within a broader cultural network. This network selects and organizes notions such as normality and abnormality, reason and madness, sense and nonsense, through biopolitical mechanisms and discursive practices. Special attention will be devoted to the cultural dimension in the construction of concepts related to mental illness and in the emergence of specific psychopathological conditions.

The theoretical frameworks introduced in the first part of the course will be applied to a range of diagnostic constructs, including Borderline Personality Disorder, depression, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, psychopathy, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. These cases will serve to test the analytical potential of semiotic theory and its relevance for contemporary mental health discourse.

In the second part of the course, the focus will shift to schizophrenia, one of the most enigmatic and debated psychiatric conditions. This topic will be explored through a range of interdisciplinary perspectives that contribute to a richer understanding of psychopathology. Cognitive and phenomenological approaches will be examined for their capacity to illuminate the lived experience of mental illness, and will be critically integrated with semiotic analysis, as well as with insights from anthropology and the philosophy of mind. The aim is to develop comprehensive and context-sensitive frameworks for interpreting the symbolic, narrative, and experiential dimensions of schizophrenia.

Key topics in this section will include:

a) the cultural dimension of schizophrenia and its representations across different media;
b) the historical process of constructing and categorizing the disorder;
c) communicative and linguistic features associated with the condition;
d) narrative structures shaping patients’ experiences and the role of psychotherapy;
e) the disruption of experiential meaning and a semiotic account of delusion formation.

Readings/Bibliography

The final examination consists of two parts.

1. a discussion of the core readings, mandatory for all students;
2. the completion of one of the two assessment pathways described below. 

Core readings

The following readings are mandatory for all students:

• Eco, U. (1984). “Dictionary vs. Encyclopedia.” In Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language (pp. 46–86). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Foucault, M. (1987). Mental Illness and Psychology (A. Sheridan, Trans.; pp. 60–89). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
• Greimas, A. J., & Ricoeur, P. (1989). “On Narrativity” (P. Perron & F. Collins, Trans.). New Literary History, 20(3), 551–562. https://doi.org/10.2307/469353
• Lobaccaro, L. (2022). At the Edge of Meaning. English translation of Ai confini del senso: La schizofrenia tra semiotica, psicopatologia e scienze cognitive [Doctoral dissertation, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna]. https://doi.org/10.48676/unibo/amsdottorato/10237

Additional materials and specific indications concerning the required sections will be provided during the course.

The two pathways

In addition to preparing the core readings, each student must choose one of the following two pathways:

1. Pathway A – Psychopathology and Mental Health
   In-depth preparation and oral discussion of one additional book selected from the relevant reading list.
2. Pathway B – Semiotic Methods and Analysis
   Submission of a final paper based on the methodological and analytical bibliography provided below.

Pathway A – Psychopathology and Mental Health

Students choosing this pathway are required to prepare one monograph in depth and discuss it critically during the oral examination, relating its arguments to the theoretical issues addressed throughout the course.

• Kirmayer, L. J. (2025). Healing and the Invention of Metaphor: Toward a Poetics of Illness Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009617802
• Kirmayer, L. J. (2026). Unraveling the World-Knot: Mind-Body Problems in Clinical Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sass, L. A. (2017 [1992]). Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought. Revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Stanghellini, G. (2004). Disembodied Spirits and Deanimated Bodies: The Psychopathology of Common Sense. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Stanghellini, G. (2016). Lost in Dialogue: Anthropology, Psychopathology, and Care. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Stanghellini, G., & Mancini, M. (2017). The Therapeutic Interview in Mental Health: A Values-Based and Person-Centred Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  

Pathway B – Semiotic Methods and Analysis

Students choosing this pathway are required to develop a semiotic analysis of a literary, artistic, cinematic, or other cultural object related to psychopathology.

The bibliography below is offered as a selection of suggested readings intended to support the design and development of the final paper. It is neither exhaustive nor mandatory. Students are not expected to prepare the entire bibliography; instead, the readings most relevant to the chosen topic will be identified in consultation with the instructor, who may also recommend additional or alternative readings where appropriate.

Semiotic theory and methods

• Caracciolo, M. (2014). The Experientiality of Narrative: An Enactivist Approach. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
• Eco, U. (1994). “The Woods of Loisy” and “Lingering in the Woods.” In Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (pp. 27–74). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Fabbri, P. (2026). The Semiotic Turn and Other Selected Essays (G. Marrone, Ed.). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
• Greimas, A. J., & Courtés, J. (1982). Semiotics and Language: An Analytical Dictionary (L. Crist, D. Patte, J. Lee, E. McMahon II, G. Phillips, & M. Rengstorf, Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Lobaccaro, L. (2025). “‘The Whole World Is Mine’: NOF4’s Graffiti Between Norms, Abnormality, and Processes of Subjectivation.” Actes Sémiotiques, 133, 109–125.
• Marrone, G. (2021). Introduction to the Semiotics of the Text (M. De Michiel, Trans.). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

Narrative, literature, and artistic expression

• McGrath, P. (Ed.). (2017). Writing Madness. Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press.
• Prinzhorn, H. (1972). Artistry of the Mentally Ill: A Contribution to the Psychology and Psychopathology of Configuration (E. von Brockdorff, Trans.). Vienna and New York: Springer-Verlag.

Psychiatry and cinema

• Gabbard, G. O., & Gabbard, K. (1999). Psychiatry and the Cinema (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
  

Mental illness and graphic narratives

• Scavarda, A., & Moretti, V. (2025). “Health Got Graphic! The Role of Graphic Medicine in Challenging the Medicalization of Autism.” Disability & Society, 40(2), 329–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2023.2289361
• Pedri, N. (2021). “Sexuality and Mental Illness in Comics: Notes towards an Intersectional Graphic Medicine.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 12(6), 1169–1182. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2020.1773885
  
• Venkatesan, S., & Saji, S. (2021). “Drawing the Mind: Aesthetics of Representing Mental Illness in Select Graphic Memoirs.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 12(5), 664–677. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2019.1600961

Schizophrenia and cultural theory

• Woods, A. (2011). The Sublime Object of Psychiatry: Schizophrenia in Clinical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mental illness, media, and social stigma

• Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2001). “Conceptualizing Stigma.” Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363–385.
• Wahl, O. F. (1995). Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
  

 

Further details concerning the assessment of each pathway are provided in the section Assessment methods.

 

Teaching methods

Lectures will be complemented by in-class textual commentary and discussion.

Assessment methods

Assessment methods

The final assessment consists of two components.

Part I – Oral examination

All students are required to take an oral examination based on the core readings discussed during the course. The examination is intended to assess students’ knowledge of the theoretical framework, their understanding of the key concepts introduced during the course, and their ability to discuss and apply them critically.

The oral examination on the core readings constitutes the main component of the final assessment.

Part II – Assessment pathway

In addition to the oral examination, students must complete one of the following assessment pathways. The selected pathway contributes to the final evaluation and allows students to pursue a more specialized line of study.

Pathway A – Psychopathology and Mental Health

Students are required to prepare one book selected from the relevant reading list and discuss it critically during the oral examination, relating its main arguments to the theoretical issues addressed throughout the course.

Pathway B – Semiotic Methods and Analysis

Students are required to submit a final paper applying semiotic methods to the analysis of a literary, artistic, cinematic, or other cultural object related to the course's contents.

The topic must be agreed upon in advance with the instructor, who may also recommend additional or alternative readings where appropriate.

The paper may be written individually or in small groups and must not exceed 10 pages per student, excluding the bibliography. It must be submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format, using Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.15 line spacing, and standard margins, at least 15 days before the chosen examination date.

The paper must be submitted by email to luigi.lobaccaro2@unibo.it. The subject line should read:

Final Paper – Semiotics of Psychopathologies – [Month of the examination session]

Attendance is not mandatory (but highly reccomended) and it does not affect the evaluation.

All students must register for the exam through the AlmaEsami platform.


Exam sessions:

Both oral exams and brief discussion over the final dissertation will be scheduled during the exam appeals, that will take place in the following months during a.y. 2025/2026: February, March, June, September, December.

Evaluation criteria

Grades will be assigned according to the following scale:

• 30 cum laude: Excellent performance; in-depth knowledge and analytical competence; outstanding clarity, originality, and critical insight.

• 30: Very good; full and adequate knowledge, well-structured and correctly expressed, with relevant critical engagement.

• 29–27: Good; more than satisfactory knowledge and analytical skills, clear and correct expression.

• 26–24: Fair; essential knowledge and skills are present but not fully developed or articulated.

• 23–21: Sufficient; general but superficial understanding, expression often unclear or confused.

• 20–18: Barely sufficient; significant gaps in expression and conceptual articulation.

• <18: Not sufficient; lack of basic knowledge, incorrect or absent analytical reasoning, poor understanding of core concepts, serious issues in expression.
  

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders have the right to special adjustments according to their condition, following an assessment by the Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD. Please do not contact the instructor but get in touch with the Service directly to schedule an appointment. It will be the responsibility of the Service to determine the appropriate adjustments. For more information, visit the page: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students.

It is recommended that students contact the University office in advance. Any proposed adjustments must be submitted at least 15 days in advance for the instructor’s approval, who will evaluate their appropriateness in relation to the learning objectives of the course.

 

Teaching tools

Power Point; Handout.

Office hours

See the website of Luigi Lobaccaro