ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of what mental processes make and effect an individual’s membership in a group led by a charismatic leader. The charismatically led youth group has been seen in different eras of human history and is quite widespread in any given era. It has a membership composed of postpubertal youngsters, and has an adored leader who is either youngish or actually only slightly older than they. The regressed oedipal emotional-instinctual position of the leader may be more precisely specified. The idealization of the leader takes place to some degree in other group-types which have leaders. The examples illustrate that the members of a charismatically led group have common, shared qualities which characterize their membership. The examples investigated show that the transition from being a nonaffiliated individual to being a member of a charismatically led group may take place in more than one way. The various charismatically led groups studied here allow for certain generalizations about this group-type.
