Alienatio mentis, Humor, Contemplation. Luigi Pirandello and the Poetics of Disinterest.

This article examines the concept of *alienatio mentis* (mental alienation) through the lens of Luigi Pirandello’s literary works, particularly his novel *Shoot!* and related novellas, contextualized within nineteenth-century medical, legal, and philosophical understandings of mental illness. It explores how Pirandello’s characters embody forms of alienation that reflect both detachment from reality and a complex consciousness capable of empathy and imaginative identification with others. The study highlights historical shifts in the perception of mental alienation—from moral and organic disease models to nuanced views involving dissociation and the interplay between sanity and madness—and considers the legal implications of insanity in Italy during the institutionalization of the mentally ill. Ultimately, the article situates Pirandello’s treatment of alienation as a multifaceted phenomenon that challenges simple binaries between health and illness, self and other, and human and mechanical existence.