Morselli, Enrico

   (1852–1929)

   Morselli is known outside of Italy for having coined the term "dysmorphophobia." In Italy, he is known for a big psychiatry textbook, A Guide to the Semiotics of Mental Illness (Manuale di semeiotica delle malattie mentali, 1885–1894), and for cofounding with his teacher Carlo Livi (1823–1877) and Augusto Tamburini (1848–1919) in 1874 The Journal of Experimental Psychiatry and Legal Medicine (Rivista sperimentale di freniatria e medicina legale). In 1889, Morselli was appointed professor of psychiatry and neuropathology in Genoa, but psychiatry historian German Berrios notes that in the 1880s, when he was still professor of psychiatry in Turin, "he built up a rich private practice, probably his main source of dysmorphophobic patients (in general, these complaints were very rare in asylums for the insane)" (History of Mental Symptoms, p. 279).