Neuroses and Group Culture in Southern Italy: The Matrix of a `Real' Large Group

At the 7th European Symposium in Group Analysis, Oxford, 1987, in my paper: `Transpersonal Processes and Self' I concluded by saying that: `Popular customs, rituals and traditions of Central-Southern Italy are based on certain main themes such as fertility and impotence, which are blended with or juxtaposed to magic-supernatural ones of propitiation, spells and exorcism. The dominating figure... is the mother, often felt to be omnipotent and hyper-protective. `I referred to a hypochondriac Self, clinical expression of a group matrix, whose main cultural aspect is a profound dependence on the mother figure. These conclusions were taken from a work I did on about 1000 patients coming from Central-Southern Italy (Pisani, 1990), the part of Italy I now examine as the matrix of a real large group.