Reggio Calabria, Italy: The Mafia boss was having a dreadful time dealing with loss. But he was not struggling with the loss of lives, or even the loss of his freedom.
"Doc, it's my hair," the mobster from the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate confessed to his psychiatrist in jail.
"I'm afraid of losing my hair. And look at these spots on my arm. See them?" he half-pleaded.
"But your hair is fine. Absolutely fine. And there aren't any spots," Dr Gabriele Quattrone tried to reassure his patient, who had tied himself into a knot of anxiety over the hair he believed to be falling from his head and the imaginary blotches popping up all over his arms.
Quattrone is one of a tiny corps of psychotherapists who have treated Italian crime bosses or their family members. Patients include dons haunted by nightmares, turncoats tormented after ratting, wives left frigid by rigid codes of loyalty.
Quattrone, a neuropsychiatrist, treated his jailed ‘Ndrangheta patient with tranquilisers and made some attempts at nurturing introspection.
These are indeed tense times for Italy's mobsters. A growing police crackdown and a rebellion among businessmen expected to pay protection money have left some sons of organised crime families wrestling with self-doubt, unsure they are cut out for the bloody, vengeful world of the mob.
Risky business
Seeking help, however, is risky business: among mobsters, visiting a psychologist is a weakness you can pay for with your life.
Palermo psychologist Girolamo Lo Verso recalled the case of a mobster's son who told another therapist: "`If my father knows I come here, he'll kill us."
"If you're a mafioso, and you're anxious, you're not trustworthy and you have to be eliminated," said Lo Verso.
