Psychoanalytic study on the Xylella fastidiosa conspiracy theory

The unfolding of affective experiences and their collective organization in forms of mnestic traces progressively define the emotional tone that characterizes the link between a community and its environment. The authors explore and analyze a case study of conspiracy beliefs that have developed in the last decade in Southern Italy following the spread of a bacterium that has caused serious damage to agriculture. Xylella fastidiosa is an allochthonous bacterium responsible for a phytosanitary disaster in Apulia (a region in southern Italy) which resulted in a profound economic, social and cultural crisis that erupted into a deep conflict between the population and the Italian and European government institutions. In this context of general mistrust, where finding what to believe and to whom to blame is a task of survival, conspiracy theories respond to epistemic, existential and social needs providing immediate and reactive explanatory narratives that can fill the meaning voids and alleviate disorientation and suffering. The action of collective archaic defense mechanisms leads to the formulation of narrations of events with deeply emotional connotations. Psychoanalytic theorizations, such as basic assumptions (Bion, 2003), psychic retreats (Steiner, 2003) and transitional space (Winnicott, 1951) offer precious frame for describing sensemaking processes and their possible outcomes as psychosocial phenomena in times of uncertainty and conflict.