The authors comment the experience shared by the survivors of the earthquake that hit L’Aquila and destroyed its historical centre in 2009, as an experience of loss of a place of identity, a collective secure base. The ghost town can thus be described as a non-place (Marc Augé). Therefore, the only possibility of reconstructing an individual and collective identity is to reconstruct the historical centre of the town. These points of view reveal a critical position against the Environmental Services and the decisions taken by our politicians, since they organized a sort of deportation of the inhabitants and decided to build a new town, excluding any democratic participation of the inhabitants of L’Aquila.
Keywords: Identity, social bonds, containment, non-place, collective Self, secure base