# Marcella Balconi

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**Marcella Balconi** (8 February 1919 – 5 February 1999) was an Italian child psychiatrist, member of the [resistance](/source/Italian_resistance_movement) during World War II and a Parliamentary politician. She pioneered the practice of [psychoanalytic infant observation](/source/Psychoanalytic_infant_observation) in Italy.

## Biography

Balconi enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine of the [University of Pavia](/source/University_of_Pavia) and was introduced to her future profession while working, during the holidays, with her father who was a physician in a medical clinic nearby.[1][2]

In 1943 she graduated from medical school and went to work with the clinician and pediatrician Pietro Fornara (1897– 1975), a pioneer in the field of child neuropsychiatry as well as a fervent anti-fascist and head of the resistance movement in Novara, Italy.[1]

### Partisan

During the [World War II](/source/World_War_II), she left her position as an assistant at the Institute of Biological Chemistry in [Pavia](/source/Pavia) in 1944 to join resistance forces. She became health inspector of the resistance forces and, together with her cousin and future co-author [Maria Elvira Berrini](/source/Maria_Elvira_Berrini), Balconi formally entered the [Italian Resistance](/source/Italian_resistance_movement) as a physician working with the [Garibaldi Brigades](/source/Brigate_Garibaldi), first in [Valtellina](/source/Valtellina) and then in [Turin](/source/Turin).[1] As part of her assignments, she was given the dossiers of Italian compatriots who had been killed by the [Nazis](/source/Nazism). The collection also included photographs and information about the deaths of "many adolescents and children: in that dramatic circumstance she took upon herself the solemn commitment to do everything to save the children."[3]

### Researcher

After the war, she helped organize the child [neuropsychiatry](/source/Neuropsychiatry) service offered by the charity hospital in Novara. Balconi served as deputy director of the National Motherhood and Childhood Work (ONMI) from 1945 to 1948 and organized a pilot research effort modeled after the French and Swiss medical-pedagogical centers she had seen.[1] In the 1950s she suggested new research in Italy using a test developed in Switzerland by [L. Verlag Hans Huber Düss](/source/L._Verlag_Hans_Huber_D%C3%BCss), in which researchers study the drawings of children who illustrated their reactions to Düss's fables.[4]

During her work, even as late as the 1970s, Balconi introduced to her Italian colleagues the practice of [psychoanalytic infant observation](/source/Psychoanalytic_infant_observation) and used it to train social and health professionals. It also became a standard diagnostic practice in Italy. In doing so, she confirmed theories of the Polish researcher [Esther Bick](/source/Esther_Bick) (1901–1983), and she earned recognition as one of the "pioneers of Italian child neuropsychiatry."[1]

### Parliamentarian

Throughout her life, Balconi kept an eye on the political landscape in Italy, writing,

... from the beginning I had a political commitment and a medical commitment. I have always tried to combine these two commitments. There has always been a link between political choice, interest in certain social classes and my work.[1]
She was elected provincial councilor representing the [Italian Communist Party](/source/Italian_Communist_Party) (PCI) in 1946. In 1963 she was elected to the Italian Parliament, the [Chamber of Deputies](/source/Chamber_of_Deputies_(Italy)), sitting on the Hygiene and Health Committee, representing the district of [Turin](/source/Turin), Italy. She took that opportunity to draft a law that would reform the hospital system, which was made into law in 1968 with the help of minister [Luigi Mariotti](/source/Luigi_Mariotti).[1]

During her five years in the Italian Parliament, she introduced a total of 22 bills of which five became law, including Act 2185 of 13 March 1965, *Protection of mental health and psychiatric assistance.*[5]

### Personal life

She was born 8 February 1919 in [Romagnano Sesia](/source/Romagnano_Sesia) in northern Italy, the daughter of a physician Giuseppe Balconi.[1]

Although Balconi resigned in 1980 as director of the Child Neuropsychiatry Service of the Novara hospital (Ospedale Maggiore), she remained professionally active until her death on 5 February 1999 at 79 years of age.[1][2]

## Memberships

Considered a "Pioneer of Child Psychoanalysis in Italy," she was very well known in her field.[6]

- Founder of the first Child Psychiatry Service in Piedmont
- Founding Member of the Italian Society of Child Neuropsychiatry (SINPI)
- Founding Member of the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis (SIP)
- Ordinary Member and Teacher of the World Society of Psychoanalysis

## Selected works

- M. Balconi, Difficult children, "Abnormal childhood," n. 1, 1953, pp. 20–29
- M. Balconi, The drawing applied to the fables of Düss, "Abnormal childhood," n. 3, 1953, pp. 432–480
- M. Balconi, ME Berrini, Diagnosis of structure in child psychiatry, "Abnormal childhood," n. 23, 1957
- M. Balconi, ME Berrini, Method of statistical processing. The first elaborations: connections between the "personal characters" and some mesological and hereditary factors, n. 23, 1957, "Abnormal childhood," n. 23, 1957
- M. Balconi, ME Berrini, Statistical-clinical study on a group of 1000 children reported for difficulty in adapting to school. First part, "Abnormal childhood," n. 25, 1958, pp. 42–89
- M. Balconi, ME Berrini, Statistical-clinical study on a group of 1000 children reported for difficulty in adapting to school. Second part, "Abnormal childhood," n. 28, 1958, pp. 411–463
- M. Balconi, ME Berrini, Statistical-clinical study on a group of 1000 children reported for difficulty in adapting to school. Third part, "Abnormal childhood," n. 30, 1959, pp. 42–92
- M. Balconi, ME Berrini, Statistical-clinical study on a group of 1000 children reported for difficulty in adapting to school. Part Four, "Abnormal Childhood," n. 32, 1959, pp. 309–333
- M. Balconi, ME Berrini, On school maladjustment in the first grade. Part five. Concluding notes, "Abnormal childhood," n. 36, 1960, pp. 7–42
- M. Balconi and G. Del Carlo Giannini, Primary experiences and personality development. Studies on child drawing, in Psychology and Personality, edited by LM Lorenzetti, Milan, Franco Angeli, 1995
- M. Balconi, Listening to the child: images, stories, fantasies, with the collaboration of ME Berrini and F. Fornari, edited by R. Dionigi, Cesena, The old bridge, 1999

## References

1. Patuelli, Francesca. ["Balconi Marcella, Scienza a due voci"](http://scienzaa2voci.unibo.it/biografie/1218-balconi-marcella). *scienzaa2voci.unibo.it*. Retrieved 2020-12-21.

1. Mori, G. F. (1999). ["Marcella Balconi"](https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=rpsa.045.0217a). *Rivista di Psicoanalisi*

1. ["Donne e Uomini della Resistenza: Marcella Balconi"](http://anpi.it/b909/) (in Italian). *ANPI*. Retrieved 2020-12-22.

1. Racalbuto, L. N. (1989). ["M. Balconi e G. Del Carlo Giannini. Il disegno e la psicoanalisi infantile Cortina, Milano, 1987, pagine 222, lire 40.000."](https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=rpsa.035.0187a). *Rivista di Psicoanalisi*

1. ["Marcella Balconi / Deputati / Camera dei deputati - Portale storico"](https://storia.camera.it/deputato/marcella-balconi-19190208) (in Italian). *storia.camera.it*. Retrieved 2020-12-22.

1. ["Marcella Balconi"](http://marcellabalconi.altervista.org/). 2013-05-15. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20130515100040/http://marcellabalconi.altervista.org/) 2013-05-15 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-12-23.

## External links

- Davalli, Benedetta; Monti, Fiorella (2005). *Ripensare la nascita. Reti di sostegno dalla gravidanza alla genitorialità (Rethinking birth. Support networks from pregnancy to parenthood)* (in Italian). Edizioni Pendragon. pp. 11–13. ISBN 978-88-8342-360-4.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Marcella Balconi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcella_Balconi) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcella_Balconi?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.