Article ID: CBB899140218

Optimizing and Normalizing the Population Through Hormone Therapies in Italian Science, c. 1926–1950 (2020)

unapi

This essay explores how hormone treatments were used to optimize and normalize individuals under Italian Fascism. It does so by taking the activities of the Biotypological Orthogenetic Institute − an Italian eugenics and endocrinological centre founded by Nicola Pende in 1926 − as the prime example of a version of eugenics, biotypology, which was based on hormone therapies. This essay first demonstrates that Italian Fascist biopolitics was not only concerned with increasing the size of the Italian population, but also with improving its quality. It suggests that under the Italian Fascist regime hormone therapies became eugenic tools of intervention to improve the Italian race. Second, while Pende's institute purportedly enhanced men and women, its activities show the extent to which the ‘techniques of normalization’ pursued by the Fascist regime were both systematic and invasive.

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Authors & Contributors
Piccolino, Marco
Vittoria, Albertina
Guzzone
Lucrezia Nuti
Greco, Pietro
De Pinto, Laura
Concepts
Fascism
Science and society
Science and politics
Eugenics
Medicine
Medicine and society
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
Places
Italy
Argentina
Genoa (Italy)
Brazil
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