“His Discovery Has Revolutionized Psychiatry; It Has Opened Vast Horizons”: Ugo Cerletti, a Missing Nobel Prize Laureate?

Drawing on original sources from Italian and Swedish archives, this article provides novel insights into the life of Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963). Cerletti, the Italian neuropsychiatrist and originator (with his assistant Lucio Bini) of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the late 1930s, strongly coveted the Nobel Prize in the 1950s and 1960s. He would never receive it, despite maintaining close correspondence with his nominators and informants in Sweden. This article critically discusses potential reasons for the rejection of his candidacy, including the tensions between Cerletti and Bini and the general climate of suspicion against ECT that began in the 1960s, and draws comparisons with other missing Nobel laureates. The research herein adds previously unknown details to the history of ECT; it will be shown that Cerletti was opposed by some members of the Nobel committee even before popular anti-ECT attacks and that his attempts to remedy this situation were unsuccessful.