Mario Di Fiorino


Mario Di Fiorino is an Italian psychiatrist and Director of Psychiatry at the Ospedale Versilia in Viareggio, Italy. The author of numerous scientific papers and books, his main areas of research are related to mental manipulation, violence, and dissociative disorders.

Life and career

Di Fiorino was born in Forte dei Marmi and received his medical degree from the University of Pisa in 1978. He went on to qualify as a specialist in psychiatry in 1982 and in child neuropsychiatry in 1986. Prior to taking up his post as Director of Psychiatry at the Ospedale Versilia in 2002, he served in the same capacity at the Ospedale Psichiatrico Giudiziario di Castiglione delle Stiviere in Mantua.
In 1984 he founded the study center, Psichiatria e Territorio, and its journal of the same name and in 2002 co-founded the journal Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry with the Portuguese psychiatrist Maria Luisa Figueira. Several of his studies have focused on mental manipulation in cults and the psychology of their leaders. His study of the Italian apocalyptic cult, Gruppo del Rosario, formed the basis of his 1996 book, Se il mondo non finisce: Quando la profezia non si avvera. The book was published in English three years later as If the world does not end. When the prophecy plays false! with a foreword by Jean-François Mayer. In 2008 Di Fiorino was awarded the Premio Firenze for services to psychiatry.

Selected publications