Working within the traditions of Bion, Turquet, Foulkes and Pines, and drawing on concepts and data from psychoanalysis, group analysis and sociology, this volume develops Earl Hopper's theory of the fourth basic assumption in the unconscious life of groups and group-like social systems within a social, cultural and political context.

The social unconscious and its manifestations in group analysis are the focus of this important new book of Earl Hopper's selected papers. Drawing on sociology, psychoanalysis and group analysis, he argues that groups and their participants are constrained unconsciously by social, cultural and political facts and forces.

Earl Hopper, in his important, profound and well reasoned book introduces a fourth Basic Assumption (Incohesion) to the three Basic assumptions (of Flight/ Fight, Pairing and Dependency) introduced by Bion. Hopper's theory of Incohesion provides us with a new way of thinking about annihilation anxiety, which he discusses in terms of the unconscious fears of annihilation connected to the fears of separation.' - System Centered News 'What we may learn most from reading Hopper's profound thinking presented in this surprisingly readable book is how he makes the bridge from his theory to the treatment of difficult patients. He identifies aggregation and Massification as a characteristic of regressed groups. In groups of the traumatized, however, where survivor guilt, and perhaps more important, survivor shame underlies the suffering, Aggregation and Massification are likely to be chronic.' - Yvonne Agazarian Working within the traditions of Bion, Turquet, Foulkes and Pines, and drawing on concepts and data from psychoanalysis, group analysis and sociology, this volume develops Earl Hopper's theory of the fourth basic assumption in the unconscious life of groups and group-like social systems within a social, cultural and political transgenerational context. He argues that Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification or (ba) I:A/M (an acronym for 'I AM' - an assertion of personal identity when identity is under threat) is based on the fear of annihilation stemming from traumatic experience. With full respect for the constraints of the social unconscious, the personification of aggregation and massification by patients with crustacean, contact-shunning and amoeboid, merger-hungry characteristics, respectively, is illustrated with detailed clinical vignettes involving drug addicts, victims of incest and sexual abuse, and child survivors of the Shoah. Concluding with critical commentaries by senior British and American group analysts and psychoanalysts, this volume is essential reading for both analysts and their students.

This book is concerned with the study of organizations of various kinds. It examines the patterns of conscious and unconscious life of those organizations in which traumatic experience is ubiquitous and understanding the variations in individual, group, and organizations.

In Group Music Therapy Alison Davies, Eleanor Richards and Nick Barwick bring together developments in theory and clinical practice in music therapy group work, celebrating the richness of what group analytic thinking and music therapy can offer one another. The book explores the dynamic elements of the processes that take place in both group analytic therapy and group music therapy, exploring both the commonalities and the distinctive characteristics of the two modalities. To music therapists, psychotherapists and other arts therapists Group Music Therapy offers a body of knowledge and enquiry through which to understand the music therapy group process through some of the central proposals of group analysis; to group analysts it offers insight into the possibilities of non-verbal communication through improvised music and, more widely, invites thought in musical terms about the nature of events and exchanges in a therapy group. Links are made with group analytic theory as well as with other associated theoretical traditions, such as attachment theory and theories of early infant development. The book explores the history of group music therapy and the history of group analysis, looking both at core concepts and at more recent developments. Attention is also given to developmental issues, drawing upon theories of infant development and attachment theory and clinical vignettes drawn from music therapy practice with a wide range of patient groups illustrates these ideas. The book concludes with a discussion of the possibilities of co-therapy and other collaborative working and of the value of experiential groups in training. Group Music Therapy will be a key text for clinicians and students seeking to expand their theoretical thinking and enrich their practice, and offers a grounding in group analytic ideas to professionals in other disciplines considering referrals to group work.

From Crowd Psychology to the Dynamics of Large Groups offers transdisciplinary research on the history of the study of social formations, ranging from nineteenth-century crowd psychology in France and twentieth-century Freudian mass psychology, including the developments in critical theory, to the study of the psychodynamics of contemporary large groups. Carla Penna presents a unique combination of sociology, psychoanalysis, and group analysis in the study of social formations. This book revisits the epistemological basis of group analysis by introducing and discussing its historical path, especially in connection with the study of large groups and investigations of the social unconscious in persons, groups, and societies. It also explores early work on group relations and contemporary research on the basic-assumption group in England, particularly Hopper’s theory of Incohesion as a fourth basic assumption. From Crowd Psychology to the Dynamics of Large Groups enables the reader to map out the field of the unconscious life of crowds illuminating the darkness of twenty-first century collective movements. The reflections in this book present new perspectives for psychologists, psychoanalysts, group analysts, sociologists, and historians to investigate the psychodynamics of contemporary crowds, masses, and social systems.

This collection of papers by distinguished international contributors explores formative influences affecting Bion's emotional and intellectual development. The authors revisit in depth the origins of Bion's ideas, his contact with Trotter, and his later work with the Tavistock Clinic and psychoanalysis.

Leaders, teams and organisational consultants are faced with a situation of permanent transitions. The current world of organisations is full of beginnings and incomplete endings. The author assumes that the endless re-structuring of living networks of relationships in organisations generates, over time, post-traumatic stress disorder in individuals, groups and the whole system. The book deals with the paradox that continuity is the most important factor in change and that leadership alone solves very little. Even the most heroic figure flounders without the help of the various groups in the organisation, which make things work. The author reflects on his practice of developing teams, professionals and organisations with an approach rooted in group analysis and social anthropology. The dominant way of looking at performance, motivation and leadership focuses on individuals and fails to take into account how we work together, how we fail to co-operate and how inter-dependent we are.

How do the fundamental elements of experience impact on the practice of psychotherapy? Dimensions of Psychotherapy, Dimensions of Experience explores the three basic elements of psychotherapy - time, space and number - summarising theory, setting it in context and bringing concepts to life with clinical illustrations. Michael Stadter and David Scharff bring together contributions describing how each of these elements, as well as their simple and direct manifestations in the physical world, also combine to form the psychological dimensions of symbolic reality both in the inner world and in the transactional world. They also reveal how, in encounters between patient and therapist, the combination of inner worlds form a new, uniquely psychological, fourth dimension that saturates the activity and experience of the other three elements. This book aims to increase our understanding of the action of the three dimensions of psychotherapy by looking at the elements that constitute the setting and process in which clinicians engage every day. The contributors, all of whom are experienced psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, connect their thinking on the dimensions to clinical practice by illustrating their ideas with case material and examining their impact on general treatment issues. This book will be useful to practicing psychotherapists and psychoanalysts and students of psychoanalysis and philosophy.

This indispensable book is designed to help practitioners create, initiate, and maintain therapy groups for traumatized individuals. Written by an array of experienced group therapists, the book addresses general aspects of trauma group therapy as well as issues specific to different populations and clinical problems. Cogent, practical information is provided on such important topics as screening and selecting members, understanding the impact of trauma on group dynamics, managing the effects of flashbacks, addressing dissociative states, working with countertransference reactions, and dealing with clients' emotional crises. Approaches and strategies are discussed for diverse groups, including survivors of sexual and physical abuse, clients with severe medical illnesses, bereaved children, survivors of catastrophic events in the community, victims of political and ethnic persecution, and those with diagnosed mental disorders in which trauma plays a significant role. Filled with illustrative case material, the book offers essential insights and tools for therapists, supervisors, and trainees from a range of orientations.