Mental Discomfort: The Challenge of Our Time - A Proposal for University Courses for Students with Mental Disabilities

"Mental discomfort is the challenge of our time. We have asked Minister Bernini to expand access to knowledge communities". With the lectio magistralis entrusted to Claudia Gerini, the celebrations for the fifteenth anniversary of the Guido Carli award begin. University courses in universities throughout Italy tailored for students with mental disabilities, ranging from traditional faculty disciplines, such as law and economics, to experimental and innovative ones. This is the proposal put forward by the Guido Carli Foundation to the Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, in view of the lectio magistralis of the actress and director Claudia Gerini "Imperfect and happy. The courage of fragility against the dictatorship of appearance" with which on February 23 at 5.30 pm in the aula magna Mario Arcelli of the Luiss University, the celebrations for the fifteenth anniversary of the Guido Carli award will begin, culminating in May. "After the pandemic we are experiencing a new almost invisible emergency, which primarily affects young people - says Romana Liuzzo, president of the Guido Carli Foundation. Mental discomfort is the challenge of our time. According to data shared by the World Health Organization and Save The Children, globally one in seven adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 is struggling with a psychological disorder. The Italian Society of Psychiatry estimates at least 700,000 adolescents addicted to the web, social media and video games. For the Brf Foundation-Institute for Research in Psychiatry in 2023, 833 suicides were recorded, more than two per day. Bullying, cyberbullying, aggression and isolation are symptoms of a greater discomfort, also induced by the dictatorship of appearance, from the obligation to appear perfect on social networks. An imperative of which, however, we now know the shadows and risks. The images of the giants of the platforms that in the United States parade in hearing in the Senate Justice Committee, accused of not adequately protecting minors, are making the rounds of the world. The apologies of Mark Zuckerberg to families who have seen their children destroyed by online predators are not enough. We need to reorient values, change gear, defend the courage of fragility. We can be imperfect and happy, but we need to say a "no" chorus to the pursuit of performance and success at all costs. Let's go back to ethics, as Carli would have said, who repeated to me, his granddaughter: "Being different or considered as such only gives more strength". For this reason we wrote to Minister Bernini. The success of the first integrated theater course of emotion, born in 2016 in Tor Vergata thanks to the collaboration with the pathological theater of which Claudia Gerini is the godmother, suggested the direction: opening the doors of universities to those who suffer from mental disorders is the best way to offer opportunities to those who seem to have none. Against disorientation and prejudice we use the weapons of inclusion and knowledge". After the initial greeting from Liuzzo, the lectio magistralis will see the introduction of the Honorable Maria Elena Boschi, vice president of the Rai surveillance commission, and the conclusions of General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, operational commander of the inter-force summit. In the parterre, in addition to many students and the students of the command of the Carabinieri schools and the higher police school, there will be representatives of institutions, representatives of the world of university and culture, top managers, entrepreneurs and journalists. In the front rows, in addition to the speakers, there will be Giampiero Massolo, advisor to the Guido Carli Foundation; Giuseppina Castiello, Undersecretary of State for Relations with Parliament; Renato Brunetta, President of the Cnel, together with his wife Titti Giovannoni, Senator Mariastella Gelmini and Senator Andrea Paganella, the Honorable Simonetta Matone, the former mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi, Francesco Bonini, Rector of Lumsa University, Nathan Levialdi Ghiron, Rector of Tor Vergata University, Michele Dall'Ongaro, Superintendent of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Gian Marco Chiocci, Director of Tg1, Bernardo Mattarella, CEO of Invitalia, Marco Ghigliani, CEO of La7, Filippo Dispenza, President of the Extraordinary Commission of Caivano. Precisely with the donation to Caivano of a hundred books belonging to Carli, to which the city library will be named, the Guido Carli Foundation inaugurated the new course based on projects dedicated to social issues. Initiatives that will be crowned on May 10 with the XV edition of the Guido Carli Award, which for the first time will see, together with the traditional recognitions to the women and men who make Italy great in the world, a Social Commitment Award assigned to a reality that has distinguished itself for its activities in the territory. It will be possible to follow the lectio magistralis also in streaming on ansa.it, corriere.it, tgcom24.it and the Facebook page of the Guido Carli Foundation.