[3]: 95 Democratic Psychiatry was created by a group of left-orientated psychiatrists, sociologists, and social workers under direction of Franco Basaglia,[4]: 253 who was its figurehead.
[5]: 165 An organizing committee, which constituted in Bologna the first nucleus group called Democratic Psychiatry, consisted of Basaglia, Franca Ongaro (Basaglia's wife), Domenico Casagrande, Franco di Cecco, Tullio Fragiacomo, Vieri Marzi, Gian Franco Minguzzi, Piera Piatti, Agostino Pirella, Michele Risso, Lucio Schittar, and Antonio Slavich.
[9]: 70 This approach was nonmedical and pointed out the role of mental hospitals in the control and medicalization of deviant behaviors and social problems.
[2]: 61 According to P. Fusar-Poli with coauthors, Democratic Psychiatry was culturally grounded on Antonio Gramsci's theory of "revolutionary reform" and Michel Foucault's critique of the "medical model".
[10] The objectives of the association were and still are to pool professional initiatives and energies in any part of society that are aimed at closing mental hospitals and restoring the rights of psychiatric patients.