Description
Book SynopsisBy extending the views of Foulkes, Bion, Freud, and Klein, this book draws the outline of a group analytic theory and meta-theory by studying the paternal and maternal functions as expressed by the conductor and the group analytic group respectively and extrapolating them to the psychoanalytic aspects of Lacan and the structuralism of Levi-Strauss's anthropological views. From this perspective, it investigates major group analytic phenomena, such as the role of money, envy, scapegoating and the regular or early ending of group therapy by patients with neurosis and borderline personality disorders. Part of the book is devoted to analyzing how eating disorders or depression in psychosis can be effectively treated and how the defective function of dreaming in psychosis can be reconstituted through group analysis, and stresses the need for research into the neural correlations of dreaming. The book further explores the ways in which group analysis can be used in the domain of the social unconscious by probing the dialectic of desire and despair in the post-modern world. Its conclusion notes the similarities between group analysis and the art of music and illuminates how the act of conducting a group analytic group resembles the art of conducting an orchestra.
Trade Review'The lack of a coherent group analytic theory has stimulated many contributions including this excellent book. Anastassios Koukis suggests a new model of the symbolic roles of father and mother in the group that is, quoting Lacan, "kaleidoscopic", freely rotating from conductor to group. With great courage it is discussed that man as a social animal finds his natural place in a group, predetermined by organic inheritance, metaphorically called instinct or drive. The new approach is convincingly followed through the theories of Foulkes and Bion, and the transcultural aspects of groups become easier to understand. Problems of early ontogenetic origin like envy, and inherited ones like psychoses, can be easier to work with, and a comprehensive meta-theory opens up wider scope for group work.'-- A. P. Tom Ormay, training group analyst, and former editor of the journal Group Analysis'Reading this book allows us to get deeply in touch with the psychodynamic approach to the phenomenon of the group. In an interesting and comprehensive way, the author explores the roots of the philosophical and psychological roles and processes that are characteristic of any group, including the transculturality that lies beyond cultural expressions and psychological syndromes. In this way the therapeutic use of groups is enlarged as being applicable to different psychopathologic, as well as psychologically difficult, situations. As a group analyst and musician, the author is very sensitive to tones emanating from participants in his groups, from where he takes clinical examples and inspiration. Sensing the unconscious and preconscious vibrations in a special way, he enters the spheres of the art of composition of the group, connecting them not only with theoretical principles but enlarging them towards meta-theoretical concepts with the rich imagery of a researcher-poet.'-- Professor Ivan Urlic, MD, PhD, neuropsychiatrist and training group analyst
Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Foreword , Introduction , In Search of a Theory and Meta-Theory of Group Analysis , Principles of the group-analytic group: towards a meta-theory , Paternal function and group analysis as a reverse symmetry of conductor (father) and group (mother): the prospects after Foulkes and Bion , Group Analysis in Operation: Some Fundamental Aspects and Phenomena , Money: from the thing itself to its symbolic death and to recognition of the symbolic father. A group-analytic approach with a transcultural dimension , Envy in group analysis , Spaltpilz: a case of self-destructive projective identification and scapegoating in the early phase of a transcultural group-analytic group , Early ending in group analysis and borderline conditions , Ending in group analysis and neurosis: from pathological narcissism to social consciousness , Group-Analytic Psychotherapy as a Treatment of Major Disorders , Group analysis and eating disorders: a study of the therapeutic impact of group-analytic psychotherapy on women suffering from anorexia and bulimia nervosa , Depression in schizophernia and the therapeutic impact of the group-analytic group , Dreaming and psychosis: coping with hearing voices in group analysis , The ontology and phenomenology of dreaming in psychosis: a group-analytic approach with a neuropsychological perspective , Group Analysis and its Relationship with the Social Unconscious and Art , Desire and despair in postmodern times: aspects of the social unconscious in a declining world and the significance of group analysis for future prosperity , Group analysis and music: similarities and differences between conducting a group-analytic group and conducting an orchestra , Epilogue
