Sofferenza psichica e aiuto al suicidio. Alcune riflessioni sul caso Ellen West

The Ellen West case was a famous clinical case addressed in 1921 by Ludwig Binswanger, the founder of Daseinsanalyse (or existential analysis). In the spring of 1921, Ludwig Binswanger discharged the poet Ellen West from his psychiatric sanatorium in Kreuzlingen, although he was aware that she would certainly commit suicide shortly thereafter. In this article, after describing the story, an analysis of the Ellen West case is attempted within the context of the categories currently in force in the Italian legal system, specifically referring to the sentence 242/2019 of the Constitutional Court, which declared the crime of “assisted suicide” partially unconstitutional. !e analysis highlights the radical difference between irreversible physical pathologies, which legitimize the use of assisted suicide, and psychiatric pathologies, for which recovery is always possible.