The Mafia Psychology: The Study of the ‘Ndrangheta and the Cosa Nostra

Abstract

According to many explorative analyses, the more diffused Italian Mafias represent a real global threat. In order to better understand the dynamics of the organized crime as well as its destructive effects on the economic, environmental, and psychosocial spheres, the chapter aims to deepen the devastating impacts upon its victims. The common traits and the specific characteristic of the Sicilian Mafia and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta are detected through the group analytic assumptions relating to Mafia Psychism. The contextualized concepts of blood ties, family roots, power, and territory make the Mafias’ organizational culture first of all an anthropological and a psychological identity. Therefore, the identity tools who the affiliates receive allow the generation of a secret and multifunctional brotherhood, exclusively interested in power, and in widespread control of the societies. Finally, thanks to the results obtained from the qualitative analysis of two single cases, this chapter give us many challenges for the future, mainly referring about the need to create models of intervention in support the Mafias’ victims, in order to prevent the risk of psychopathological, relational, and social drifts.