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Tosquelles: Healing Institutions (Semiotext
A landmark anthology of Francesc Tosquelles's intellectual, clinical, and political writings, many available in English translation for the first time.
Often consigned to legend, the life of Francesc Tosquelles reads as an adventure story of clinical, political, and collective experimentation around healing institutions. Joining the Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole psychiatric hospital in Nazi-occupied France, Tosquelles invented what would become “institutional psychotherapy” with poets, film critics, photographers, and psychiatrists including Jean Oury, Agnès Masson, Frantz Fanon, Tristan Tzara, and Paul Éluard.
This first anthology of Tosquelles’s writings shines a light on his forgotten history, from his engagement as a psychiatrist during the Spanish Civil War alongside anti-Franquist and anti-Stalinist communists, to his progressive return to Catalonia following his role in the “cultural revolution” of “institutional psychotherapy” in France. Through translations of texts never before available in English, Tosquelles’s powerful voice reminds us how important politicized relations to institutions are in our times of sick institutions, scapegoating of strangers, and globalized war.
Often consigned to legend, the life of Francesc Tosquelles reads as an adventure story of clinical, political, and collective experimentation around healing institutions. Joining the Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole psychiatric hospital in Nazi-occupied France, Tosquelles invented what would become “institutional psychotherapy” with poets, film critics, photographers, and psychiatrists including Jean Oury, Agnès Masson, Frantz Fanon, Tristan Tzara, and Paul Éluard.
This first anthology of Tosquelles’s writings shines a light on his forgotten history, from his engagement as a psychiatrist during the Spanish Civil War alongside anti-Franquist and anti-Stalinist communists, to his progressive return to Catalonia following his role in the “cultural revolution” of “institutional psychotherapy” in France. Through translations of texts never before available in English, Tosquelles’s powerful voice reminds us how important politicized relations to institutions are in our times of sick institutions, scapegoating of strangers, and globalized war.
400 pages, Paperback
Published May 12, 2026
About the author
Joana Masó Illamola
17 books1 followerJoana Masó i Illamola (n. 1978) és un filòloga, traductora, editora i professora universitària catalana. Llicenciada en Lletres modernes per la Universitat de París VII Denis Diderot i en Lletres clàssiques per la Universitat de París IV París-Sorbonne, va cursar el doctorat a la Universitat de Paris i la Universitat de Barcelona. És professora de literatura francesa a la Universitat de Barcelona i investigadora de la Càtedra UNESCO Dones, desenvolupament i cultures. Ha traduït textos de crítica i filosofia francesa contemporània d'Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida, Catherine Malabou, Jean-Luc Marion i Jean-Luc Nancy, i ha publicat articles i edicions sobre alguns d'aquests autors. Entre d'altres, ha editat els següents llibres: La llengua m'és l'únic refugi, d'Hélène Cixous (Lleonard Muntaner, 2009), els textos de Jacques Derrida sobre art i estètica, Penser à ne pas voir. Écrits sur les arts du visible 1979-2004 amb G. Michaud (La Différence, 2013) i Les Arts de l'Espace. Écrits et Interventions sur l'architecture (La Différence, 2015).[1][2]
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