Marcello Ferrada-Noli
Encyclopedia
Marcello Vittorio Ferrada-Noli is a Swedish medicine doktor and
Professor Emeritus of Public Health Sciences / Epidemiology. He was formerly Professor in Epidemiology
and in International Health
at the University of Gävle, and Head of the Research group of International and Cross-cultural Injury Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet
.
He earned his PhD
in Psychiatry
at the Karolinska Institutet
and was thereafter Research Fellow
and Lecturer in Social Medicine
at Harvard Medical School
. During his stay at Harvard he published most of the research discoveries below, judged "pioneer contribution to epidemiological research" (Academic awards).
25 July 1943, in family of Italian ancestry rooted in Genoa
(Liguria
), descendants of nobleman and explorer António de Noli. Father company owner and former officer in the Carabineers and elite equestrian, and mother university professor and artist. He had originally academic education in Philosophy
, became Full Professor of Psychology
at age 27 (University of Chile, Arica, 1970) and he was Full Professor at the University of Concepción at the time of Augusto Pinochet
's 1973 Chilean coup d'état.
Marcello Ferrada-Noli had a left-liberal ideological background (his elder brother, a lawyer, had been member of the Liberal Party) when, at age 22, became one founder of MIR, the Movement of the Revolutionary Left
. MIR was a Chile
an political party
and former left-wing guerrilla organization (founded on October 12, 1965) notorious in the resistance on the Pinochet Dictatorship. Together with his old-time friend from school years Miguel Enríquez (died in combat 1975) and Marco A. Enríquez, Ferrada-Noli was an author of the Political-military Theses of MIR - known also as La Tesis Insurreccional - the first document of MIR approved in its foundation congress of 1965. He represented there left-libertarian standpoints.
During the government of the Christian Democratic Party
, President Eduardo Frei
declared MIR out of the law and Marcello Ferrada-Noli posted in the nation-wide published wanted-list of thirteen fugitive MIR leaders, together with his friends Miguel Enríquez, Bautista van Schouwen
, and others. Later captured in August 1969 Ferrada-Noli was acquitted without trial after been kept in isolation cell at Concepción prison (La Cárcel). Altogether he had been captured or imprisoned at seven occasions for his political activities in Chile during his time in the MIR.
In the aftermath of the resistance to the military coup of 1973 Marcello Ferrada-Noli was captured in Concepción and taken first to the Stadium and later became imprisoned in Quiriquina Island
Prisoners Camp. After his liberation he could stay as Geneva Convention exiled in Sweden with help from Amnesty International
(Sweden) prominent lawyer Hans Göran Franck. In 1974 he was member of the Russell Tribunal
Scientific Secretariat in Rome, which investigated human rights violations in Chile and Latin America. Ferrada-Noli remained in operative activities of MIR's Comité Exterior until 1977, latest assigned as head of counter-intelligence operations of MIR in Northern Europe at the times of Pinochet Operación Cóndor. He left MIR definitely in 1977 after unsolved ideological confrontations with the new MIR-leadership which advocated a broad political coalition comprising the Communist Party and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), which Ferrada-Noli opposed.
In 1998, being Professor at the University of Tromso in Norway, Ferrada-Noli publicly demanded the extradition of Pinochet, at the time in London, to stand trial in Scandinavia for the disappearance
under captivity of his friends Bautista van Schouwen
and Edgardo Enríquez.
, such us torture
under captivity, in the mechanism of suicide methods
. Other findings referred to heightened prevalence of suicidal behaviour associated to PTSD psychiatric co-morbidity, particularly late-onset PTSD (2004). He had previously reported (1996) PTSD clinical symptoms being more determinant of suicidal behaviour than cultural differences among traumatised refugees.
Another discovery was the over-representation of immigrants in the epidemiology of suicide in Sweden. The phenomenon was first reported by Ferrada-Noli in 1990 as statistical tendency, and later, in 1994, by establishing high significant statistical over-representations which demonstrated that immigrant status is a risk factor
for suicidal deaths in Sweden. In a nation-wide study of 1996 he reported the Relative risk
estimate for immigrant suicides in Sweden as a whole (1.5 more times than for a native Swede). Being foreign-born immigrants fourteen percent of the Swedish population, the finding had also a political relevance and called for reforms. This was heightened when in a later investigation (1997) Ferrada-Noli et al. demonstrated that, compared with native Swedes, less immigrants who have died of suicide have sought help for their suicidal crisis; and that among those immigrants that did seek help at psychiatric emergency services, significantly less were admitted for further treatment, compared with native Swedes.
Further, he is credited for several pioneer findings on the negative impact of poverty and unfavourable socioeconomic indicators in the incidence of suicide. This research publications series included the empirically based rebuttal in 1997 of the socioeconomic hypothesis of suicide incidence (Émile Durkheim, 1897) and which had prevailed during one hundred years.
Ferrada-Noli's conclusions on the negative correlation poverty-suicide in Sweden were at first debated by David Lester
, the eminent suicide researcher and a follower in this regard of the Durkheim School. However, a Swedish study conducted over a decade after at Stockholm University by Sara Magnusson and Ilka Mäkinen and which used nation-wide epidemiological data, confirmed the early findings of Ferrada-Noli.
He is also credited for the identification of a new diagnostic category among suicidal behaviours (Metasuicide, referring to violent deaths in which self-inflicted lethal intent is deliberately concealed).
for among other his book Teoría y Método de la Concientización published in Mexico 1972. Finally, upon retirement, he received at the Swedish University of Gävle the "title of distinction" Professor Emeritus of Public Health Sciences "in value of Meritorious academic services" (1 July 2007).
Marcello Ferrada-Noli retired from academic activities 2008. His last input to international and cross-cultural psychiatric epidemiology was as contributor author in the Oxford Textbook of Suicidology. At present he is a permanent resident of Italy and President of the Antonio de Noli Academic Society.
Professor Emeritus of Public Health Sciences / Epidemiology. He was formerly Professor in Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
and in International Health
International Health
International health, also called geographic medicine or global health, is a field of health care, usually with a public health emphasis, dealing with health across regional or national boundaries...
at the University of Gävle, and Head of the Research group of International and Cross-cultural Injury Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska institutet is a medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area, Sweden, and one of Europe's largest medical universities...
.
He earned his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
at the Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska institutet is a medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area, Sweden, and one of Europe's largest medical universities...
and was thereafter Research Fellow
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
and Lecturer in Social Medicine
Social medicine
The field of social medicine seeks to:# understand how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and# foster conditions in which this understanding can lead to a healthier society....
at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
. During his stay at Harvard he published most of the research discoveries below, judged "pioneer contribution to epidemiological research" (Academic awards).
Biography
Marcello Ferrada-Noli was born in ChileChile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
25 July 1943, in family of Italian ancestry rooted in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
(Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
), descendants of nobleman and explorer António de Noli. Father company owner and former officer in the Carabineers and elite equestrian, and mother university professor and artist. He had originally academic education in Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, became Full Professor of Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at age 27 (University of Chile, Arica, 1970) and he was Full Professor at the University of Concepción at the time of Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
's 1973 Chilean coup d'état.
Marcello Ferrada-Noli had a left-liberal ideological background (his elder brother, a lawyer, had been member of the Liberal Party) when, at age 22, became one founder of MIR, the Movement of the Revolutionary Left
Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)
Revolutionary Left Movement is a Chilean political party and former left-wing guerrilla organization founded on October 12, 1965...
. MIR was a Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
and former left-wing guerrilla organization (founded on October 12, 1965) notorious in the resistance on the Pinochet Dictatorship. Together with his old-time friend from school years Miguel Enríquez (died in combat 1975) and Marco A. Enríquez, Ferrada-Noli was an author of the Political-military Theses of MIR - known also as La Tesis Insurreccional - the first document of MIR approved in its foundation congress of 1965. He represented there left-libertarian standpoints.
During the government of the Christian Democratic Party
Christian Democratic Party
Christian democratic parties are those political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social teaching, and it continues to be influential in Europe and...
, President Eduardo Frei
Eduardo Frei
Eduardo Frei may refer to either of two presidents of Chile:*Eduardo Frei Montalva , Chilean political figure and president of Chile from 1964 to 1970...
declared MIR out of the law and Marcello Ferrada-Noli posted in the nation-wide published wanted-list of thirteen fugitive MIR leaders, together with his friends Miguel Enríquez, Bautista van Schouwen
Bautista van Schouwen
Bautista van Schouwen Vasey was a medical doctor and one of the founders of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left , the Chilean guerrilla organization which earliest resisted the Military Coup of Augusto Pinochet in 1973...
, and others. Later captured in August 1969 Ferrada-Noli was acquitted without trial after been kept in isolation cell at Concepción prison (La Cárcel). Altogether he had been captured or imprisoned at seven occasions for his political activities in Chile during his time in the MIR.
In the aftermath of the resistance to the military coup of 1973 Marcello Ferrada-Noli was captured in Concepción and taken first to the Stadium and later became imprisoned in Quiriquina Island
Quiriquina Island
Quiriquina Island, Chile is located at the entrance to the Bay of Concepción, 11 km north of Talcahuano.In April, 1557, Don Garcia de Mendoza, Spanish viceroy of the Kingdom of Chile, arrived at the harbor of Concepción, with a large force of infantry and established himself upon the island of...
Prisoners Camp. After his liberation he could stay as Geneva Convention exiled in Sweden with help from Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
(Sweden) prominent lawyer Hans Göran Franck. In 1974 he was member of the Russell Tribunal
Russell Tribunal
The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal or Russell-Sartre Tribunal, was a public body organized by British philosopher Bertrand Russell and hosted by French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre...
Scientific Secretariat in Rome, which investigated human rights violations in Chile and Latin America. Ferrada-Noli remained in operative activities of MIR's Comité Exterior until 1977, latest assigned as head of counter-intelligence operations of MIR in Northern Europe at the times of Pinochet Operación Cóndor. He left MIR definitely in 1977 after unsolved ideological confrontations with the new MIR-leadership which advocated a broad political coalition comprising the Communist Party and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), which Ferrada-Noli opposed.
In 1998, being Professor at the University of Tromso in Norway, Ferrada-Noli publicly demanded the extradition of Pinochet, at the time in London, to stand trial in Scandinavia for the disappearance
Disappearance
Disappearance may refer to:* Forced disappearance, when an organization forces a person to vanish from public view* Unexplained disappearances, the disappearance of objects, animals or people without apparent reason or cause...
under captivity of his friends Bautista van Schouwen
Bautista van Schouwen
Bautista van Schouwen Vasey was a medical doctor and one of the founders of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left , the Chilean guerrilla organization which earliest resisted the Military Coup of Augusto Pinochet in 1973...
and Edgardo Enríquez.
Research
Ferrada-Noli found several indicators (psychiatric and epidemiological markers) of heightened suicidal behaviour in cross-cultural settings. One was the high associations discovered 1998 between PTSD diagnose and history of injury-related severe traumaPsychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
, such us torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
under captivity, in the mechanism of suicide methods
Suicide methods
A suicide method is any means by which one or more persons purposely kill themselves. Suicide methods can be classified according to two modes of interrupting life processes: physical or chemical. Physical modes of interruption typically act by incapacitating the respiratory system or the central...
. Other findings referred to heightened prevalence of suicidal behaviour associated to PTSD psychiatric co-morbidity, particularly late-onset PTSD (2004). He had previously reported (1996) PTSD clinical symptoms being more determinant of suicidal behaviour than cultural differences among traumatised refugees.
Another discovery was the over-representation of immigrants in the epidemiology of suicide in Sweden. The phenomenon was first reported by Ferrada-Noli in 1990 as statistical tendency, and later, in 1994, by establishing high significant statistical over-representations which demonstrated that immigrant status is a risk factor
Risk factor
In epidemiology, a risk factor is a variable associated with an increased risk of disease or infection. Sometimes, determinant is also used, being a variable associated with either increased or decreased risk.-Correlation vs causation:...
for suicidal deaths in Sweden. In a nation-wide study of 1996 he reported the Relative risk
Relative risk
In statistics and mathematical epidemiology, relative risk is the risk of an event relative to exposure. Relative risk is a ratio of the probability of the event occurring in the exposed group versus a non-exposed group....
estimate for immigrant suicides in Sweden as a whole (1.5 more times than for a native Swede). Being foreign-born immigrants fourteen percent of the Swedish population, the finding had also a political relevance and called for reforms. This was heightened when in a later investigation (1997) Ferrada-Noli et al. demonstrated that, compared with native Swedes, less immigrants who have died of suicide have sought help for their suicidal crisis; and that among those immigrants that did seek help at psychiatric emergency services, significantly less were admitted for further treatment, compared with native Swedes.
Further, he is credited for several pioneer findings on the negative impact of poverty and unfavourable socioeconomic indicators in the incidence of suicide. This research publications series included the empirically based rebuttal in 1997 of the socioeconomic hypothesis of suicide incidence (Émile Durkheim, 1897) and which had prevailed during one hundred years.
Ferrada-Noli's conclusions on the negative correlation poverty-suicide in Sweden were at first debated by David Lester
David Lester
David Lester is the guitar player in the Vancouver, Canada based band Mecca Normal, as well as a painter, graphic designer and publisher at Get to the Point Press...
, the eminent suicide researcher and a follower in this regard of the Durkheim School. However, a Swedish study conducted over a decade after at Stockholm University by Sara Magnusson and Ilka Mäkinen and which used nation-wide epidemiological data, confirmed the early findings of Ferrada-Noli.
He is also credited for the identification of a new diagnostic category among suicidal behaviours (Metasuicide, referring to violent deaths in which self-inflicted lethal intent is deliberately concealed).
Academic awards
On June 30, 2005, Marcello Ferrada-Noli received in Cuba the academic distinction Profesor Invitado of the Instituto Superior de Ciencias Médicas de La Habana, motivated "for his dedication and commitment to the betterment of human life" and among other, “For his pioneer contribution to epidemiological research, in special his international studies on the phenomenon of suicide among immigrants and refugees". In the Elogio académico accompanying the diploma were also listed his principal research findings. March 14, 2006, by the Medical Faculty of the University of Chile, ad-honorem appointment Profesor Agregado at the School of Public Health "in merit to the collaboration that you given to educational programs at the medical school". Received the academic award Mención al Mérito by the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo LeónUniversidad Autónoma de Nuevo León
The Autonomous University of Nuevo León is a public university with seven campuses across the Northern state of Nuevo León, Mexico. Founded as University of Nuevo León on 25 September 1933, it is the oldest and largest university in the state in terms of student population and it is currently...
for among other his book Teoría y Método de la Concientización published in Mexico 1972. Finally, upon retirement, he received at the Swedish University of Gävle the "title of distinction" Professor Emeritus of Public Health Sciences "in value of Meritorious academic services" (1 July 2007).
Marcello Ferrada-Noli retired from academic activities 2008. His last input to international and cross-cultural psychiatric epidemiology was as contributor author in the Oxford Textbook of Suicidology. At present he is a permanent resident of Italy and President of the Antonio de Noli Academic Society.