Guglielmo Gulotta has been a full professor (retired since 2009) at the University of Turin, Department of Psychology. He continues his career in law as a criminal barrister of the Milan Court, and his law activity takes him all around Italy. He is a psychologist and a psychotherapist.
Despite his retirement as an academic, Guglielmo Gulotta continues to give lectures and participate in important national debates regarding psychology as a science of human facts. His major expertise concerns the forensic setting, having been one of the first Italian criminal barristers to have a psychology specialisation. This dual competence (law and psychology) has promoted a novel and enriched approach to studying criminal law and to go beyond the mechanical application of the legal norms to the forensic case.
His scientific career has been witnessed by his work done in various areas of psychology and the law.Gulotta G. (2002a). La psicologia giuridica: un’interfaccia tra diritto e psicologia. In G. Gulotta e coll. Elementi di psicologia giuridica e di diritto psicologico (pp. 1–9). Milan: Giuffrè.
Gulotta is the Editor of two scientific series with the Milan Publisher – [Giuffrè]: Juridical and Criminal Psychology Series and Notebooks on Psychology Series. He has published up to now, as an author and a co-author, 50 books, and more than 300 scientific papers, some of them in different languages.
Gulotta is considered one of the most prominent contemporary authorities in Juridical and Forensic Psychology in Italy.Patrizi P. (1996). Psicologia giuridica penale: storia, attualità e prospettive. Milan: Giuffrè.AA.VV. (2009). Processi penali e processi psicologici [Criminal trials and psychological processes]. Milan: Giuffrè.Mariani Marini A., & Paganelli M. (2003) (Eds.) L’avvocato e il processo. Le tecniche della difesa. Milan: Giuffrè.
His fundamental scientific work lies in the complex and controversial task of reducing the gap between the law and psychology, and in creating a bridge between these two areas of human investigation and behaviour.Gulotta G. (2007a). Dal giusto processo al processo giusto, psicologicamente parlando, in L. De Cataldo Neuburger (Ed.). La prova scientifica nel processo penale (pp. 525–549). Padua: Cedam.
The scientific influence of Guglielmo Gulotta has spread widely from criminal law through: attribution theory;Gulotta G. (1982). I processi di attribuzione nella psicologia interpersonale e sociale. Milan: Franco Angeli. child abuse allegations;Gulotta G., & Cutic, I. (2004). Guida alla perizia in tema di abuso sessuale e alla sua critica. Milan: Giuffrè. ethics in psychology and in professional practice;Calvi E., & Gulotta G. (1999). Il codice deontologico degli psicologi. Milan: Giuffré. forensic neuroscience;Bianchi A., Gulotta G., & Sartori G. (2009) (Eds.). Manuale di neuroscienze forensi [Manual of forensic neuroscience]. Milan: Giuffré. forensic psychology;Gulotta G. & Puddu L. (2004). La persuasione forense, strategie e tattiche. Milan: Giuffrè. humour in life and in psychotherapy;Gulotta, G., Forabosco G., & Musu M.L. (2001). Il comportamento spiritoso. Scherzare e ridere di sé, degli altri e della vita. Milan: McGraw-Hill. interpersonal influence studies;Gulotta G. (1976). Commedie e drammi nel matrimonio. Milan: Feltrinelli.This book has been translated into French, German and Spanish. mobbing;Gulotta G. (2007). Il vero e il falso mobbing. Milano: Giuffrè. psychoanalysis and individual responsibility;Gulotta, G. (2005). Psicoanalisi e responsabilità penale (2nd ed.). Milan: Giuffrè. psychology of last will and testament;Gulotta G., Prino L., Zoppas F., & Zuffranieri M. (2003). Psicologia, psicopatologia e devianza nel testamento. Milan: Giuffré. social psychology as a science of everyday life;Gulotta G. (2008) (Ed.). La vita quotidiana come laboratorio di psicologia sociale. Milan: Giuffrè. systemic theory and family conflicts;Gulotta G., & Martinello P. (1982). Sistema familiare e tossicodipendenza. Milan: Giuffrè. touristic psychology;Gulotta G., & Mamia L. (2003). Psicologia turistica (2nd ed.). Milan: Giuffré. victimology.Gulotta G. (1983). Victimization an Victimological Orientations in Italy. Victimology: An International Journal, 8(3–4), 23–34.Gulotta G. (1984). New Approaches to Victimology. International Review of Applied Psychology, 33, 87–95.Gulotta G., & Riboni M. (1982). Victimology in Italy. Victimology: An International Journal, 7(1–4), 156–161.Gulotta G., & de Cataldo Neuburger L. (1983). A Systemic and Attributional Approach to Victimology. Victimology: An International Journal, 8(1–2), 5–16.
Personal life Guglielmo Gulotta was born in Milan on 11 July 1939. His family can be traced back to Sicily and Naples, and his pride in his roots is warmly expressed by his high spirit and vibrant character, which broadens his personality. Gulotta lives between Milan and Turin, and travels around all Italy.
Academic life After his Upper Honour Degree in Law cum laude at the University of Milan in 1964, Gulotta continued his practice in law, and in 1966 he passed the exam to be on the Board of Lawyers of the Milan Tribunal.
His curiosity for human behaviour and interpersonal relationships continued to grow and in 1968 he was awarded a scholarship, which lasted until 1970, to follow a research programme at the Institute of Criminal Law in the University of Milan. Since the beginning of his life as a researcher he has believed that the science of psychology could shed some light on the complexity of mental dimensions and human relationships of the different actors in the court.
He started to study psychology avidly and in 1969 obtained his specialisation in Psychology at the University of Turin, where he subsequently returned as a Full Professor in 1995. He always remembers a film that he went to watch at the cinema, when it was first released in 1962, which apparently changed his life and his way of thinking for ever: Freud: The Secret Passion, also known as Freud. The film was a drama based on the life of the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
Gulotta started then to see the possible and amazing use of psychology within the legal and criminal law scenarios. His career as a criminal barrister and as an academic started to take off. He believes that the law and psychology are two overlapping disciplines; they both study human behaviour. The first to control it; the second to explain it. In 1974 he became a collaborator, in a four-year research contract, with Prof. Pietro Nuvolone at the Institute of Criminal Law, University of Milan. In 1978 he worked at the Institute of Psychology alongside professor Marcello Cesa-Bianchi, director of the Juridical Psychology Section at the Department of Medicine (University of Milan). From 1982 to 1984 he was the President of AGAM (Association of Young Lawyers in Milan). In 1982 he obtained a researcher post at the Institute of Criminal Law, University of Milan, where is stayed until 1986, the year in which his interest and specialisation in psychology took him to Sardinia. At the University of Cagliari he was appointed as a full Professor in Social Psychology.
He enjoyed his academic life in Cagliari and his interest in joining law and psychology even closer developed greatly. In 1995 he was granted a post as a Full Professor in Juridical Psychology, at the University of Turin. The cathedra of Juridical Psychology granted to him was the first in Italy. His high commitment and work in the field was starting to pay off, not only within his practice as a barrister, but also as an academic. In 2000 he directed a group of research about serial homicides and murder without a probable cause. He retired as university professor in 2009. Among his many students should be mentioned professor Cristina Cabras, doctor Roberta Bruzzone, doctor Alessandra Bramante, doctor Angelo Zappalà and doctor Fabrizio Russo.
Scientific and professional life The most crucial insight within his scientific legacy is that human behaviour can be assessed and judged, as it happens every day in the Court, only by contextualising human actions and choices within the psychosocial reality of the defendant, the witnesses, the public prosecutor, the jury, and the Judge, and by recognising the psychological influences upon them. This was a remarkable insight by a person who was first trained in law and who first practiced in a field in which psychology was seen as something akin to astrology, and remote from the certainty and clear cut attitude required in Court.
In one of his edited books Treatise of Juridical Psychology [Trattato di Psicologia giudiziaria], 1987, inspired by the novels and plays of Luigi Pirandello and in line with the work of Erving Goffman, he described the Court as a theatre. He identified the different figures operating there, both on the stage and in the backstage, with actors reciting their own roles within their specific status.
In this forensic theatre, the drama of life is unfolded daily, and every day the case presented to the Judge exists only by virtue of how the evidence was gathered and collated; how the public accuser perceives and understands the dynamics of personal and social responsibilities involved; how the lawyer or the barrister introduces and argues the defense; how the defendant furnishes information about their behaviour and their possible involvement, or not, in the case; how the alleged victim reports the experience; how the witnesses contribute to the understanding of the case; how the experts provide clarity.
Many of these dimensions imply that what we deal with in the Court is not actually anymore the factual historical reality of events, but has something to do with the [procedural reality], which is how events are reconstructed via a process affected by personal memory, perception, and understanding of what was and is going on.
Inspired by the work of scientists such as Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, and of the Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing, Gulotta believes that reality is a social construction, and that human beings are directly responsible for this natural fabrication of life and interpersonal relationships. Gulotta has also devoted some attention to victimology, paying a specific tribute to family violence.
Guglielmo Gulotta calls his interdisciplinary approach the psychology of everyday life in which he thinks it is essential to include forensic psychology as well. 'How' and 'why' people respect the law, as well as 'how' and 'why' people break the law, can depend on the extent to which individuals are supported by or alienated from their own individual and social conditions, and also on the opportunities that society gives them to develop (or not) who they are and can be. His prolific publication track record is an example of how he can move easily from one subject to another. For those interested in the list of his publications, the website of the Guglielmo Gulotta Foundation lists them in detail: see link publications
Protocols and guidelines Guglielmo Gulotta is actively involved in applying theory to practice and in the course of his long professional career he has been the creator and the promoter of many published protocols and documents. The Noto Charter [Carta di Noto], created and developed with Luisella DeCataldo and other professionals in 1996, was then revised on July 7 2002, on June 12 2011 and again on October 14 2017, in its fourth edition. It is a document which contains guidelines for the examination of a minor in cases of sexual abuse.