Group Analysis

Group analysis views the essential nature of humans to be social, both unconsciously and consciously. From this perspective, the individual person is as compelled by social forces as by those of the id, and defends against their recognition. In fact, group analysts refer to the “social unconscious,” defined in terms of the existence of social, cultural, and communicational arrangements of which people are unaware. Our psychological problems originate between people, and our symptoms disguise what cannot be communicated in our relationships. Group analysis helps people translate their disguised symptoms into interpersonal communication. Their symptoms come to be located in the dynamic matrix of the group. Patients collectively constitute the norm from which they individually deviate. In this way, “normal” reactions are reinforced, while “abnormal” reactions ...