[:it]Un modello di psicopatologia gruppale: il suicidio di massa

The article reviews the historical and contemporary cases of mass suicide. These events mostly concern isolated groups or sects, with strong dependence links among their members, who are usually weak in individuation and personal identity. Those groups generally have a charismatic leader with marked paranoid tracts – who leads them to isolation and hostility towards the external world – and apocalyptic and messianic believes. When the mass suicide happens, the group is living in an emotional “state of siege”, therefore the suicide represents a way to escape the world and start a new and purified existence.[:]