Party; the party was dissolved in 1945 after the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano announced that only Christian Democracy was entitled to represent Christians in politics. After World War II Ossicini graduated in Medicine at the end of 1944 and was admitted as a volunteer assistant at the Fatebenefratelli Hospital. He enrolled in a specialization course in Psychiatry, dealing with nervous and mental diseases; in 1947 he became a University professor of Psychology at the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1968, Ossicini returned to politics and was elected to the Italian Senate as an independent candidate in the list of the PCI. In the Senate he was a member of the group of the Independent Left closely linked to the Communist Party; Ossicini held his seat at Palazzo Madama uninterruptedly from 1968 to 1992. Between 1970 and 1989 he promoted a law for the establishment of the Order of Psychologists, which provided a regulatory framework for the profession. He was also Vice-President of the Senate from 1979 to 1983 and from 1985 to 1987. In 1995 he became Minister for Family and Social Solidarity of the Dini Cabinet, formed after the fall of the first Berlusconi I Cabinet. He joined Lamberto Dini's Italian Renewal party and was elected for the last time to the Senate in 1996. He retired from the Senate in 2001. In the 2001 elections he supported Democracy is Freedom, a liberal democrat alliance. In 2007 this latter movement merged with the ex-Communists to form the Democratic Party, which Ossicini then supported for the rest of his life. References External links Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian): V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XIII legislature 1920 births 2019 deaths Politicians from Rome Italian partisans Italian Renewal politicians Senators of Legislature V of Italy Senators of Legislature VI of Italy Senators of Legislature VII of Italy Senators of Legislature VIII of Italy Senators of Legislature IX of Italy Senators of Legislature X of Italy Senators of Legislature XIII of Italy