Paolo Crepet

Born in Turin to a Venetian family of French origin and raised in Padua, which he considers his adopted city, he is the son of Massimo Crepet, formerly pro-rector of the University of Padua and professor of Clinical Occupational Medicine at the same university, and the nephew of the painter Angelo Maria Crepet. Married to Cristiana Melis, he has a daughter from a previous relationship named Maddalena, after his grandmother. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Padua in 1976 and then in Sociology from the University of Urbino in 1980; in 1985 he obtained his specialisation in Psychiatry at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Padua. As a young man he met Franco Basaglia, drawing close to his anti-psychiatric positions. After working at the psychiatric hospital of Arezzo, he left Italy to move to India, to Chandigarh, for three years, and then travelled to Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Later he taught in Toronto, in Rio de Janeiro and at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University; he then decided to return to Italy to follow Basaglia in Rome. Often a guest on television, he is a popular commentator and opinion writer on a great many programmes. In 2013 he was president of the Jury of Men of Letters of the Campiello Prize. As a writer, in 2015 he won the La Tore Isola d'Elba literary lifetime achievement award. He currently lives between Padua and Civita di Bagnoregio.