Taking the Group Seriously

Farhad Dalal is training group analyst and supervisor for the Institute of Group Analysis, London. He is in private practice as a psychotherapist and group analyst, and is a member of the North East London Psychotherapy and Counselling Association and the Group Analytic Network

This book sets out to think about the development of the scientific understanding of the analytic group. The book is broken into six chapters, Freud Foulkes, The interlude between Foulkes and Elias, the sociologist, Biology, and it concludes with a chapter on the Elements of a Post-Foulkian Group Analytic Theory...It is both energetic, meticulous, restless, scrutinising, sometimes under a microscope, hungry for knowledge and re-evaluative.

• Part I: Freud. 1. Introduction: 2. Freud: Culturalist or Nativist? 3. Freud: Idealist or Materialist? 4. The Freudian Infant. 5.The Development of Psychological Structures 6. Phylogeny. 7. In and Between Groups. 8. The Freudian View of Groups. 9. Summary. Part II: Foulkes. 10. Introduction. 11.The Basis of Foulkes' Radical Ideas. 12. Foulkes' Developmental Model. 13. Modifying the Freudian Developmental Frame. 14. Modifying the Freudian Developmental Frame. 15. Between the Internal and the External. 16. Recasting the Life and Death Instincts. 17. Three Group-Specific Ideas. 18. The Matrix. 17. A Summary of the Ideas of Radical Foulkes. 18. Application of the Theories. 19. Hostility and Aggression. 20. Summary. Part III: Interlude between Foulkes and Elias. 21. Interlude Figuring out the Ground. 22. An Overview of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. Part IV: Elias. 23. Introduction. 24. Figuration. 25. Power Relations I. 26. Symbol Theory. 27. A Bird's Eye View. 28. Power Relations II. 29. The Preservation of Power Differentials. Part V: Biology. 30.Introduction. 31. Hot Air and Desire. 32. Order and Chaos. 33. The Co-operative Gene. 34. The Evolution of Culture. 35. The Return of Group Selection. 36. Free Will and Determinism (again) 37. Summary. Part VI: Elements of a Post-Foulkesian Group Analytic Theory. 38. Introduction. 39. Belonging. 40. Overview of Matte-Blanco's Theory. 41. The Structure of Thought. 42. A Digression. 43. Increasing the Complexities of Belonging. 44. A Partial Summary. 45. Identity Crisis. 46. The Emotional Need to Belong. 47. From Here to Infinity: Further Strucures of Thinking. 48. Name-Calling and Hair-Splitting. 49. A Reprise. 50. A Reformation of the Notion of Identity. 51. Mind the Gap. 52. Conflict. 53. Power Relations in action. 54. The Social Unconscious. 55. Cultural Transmission and Cohesion. 56. The Therapy Group. 57. Constraint and Order. Index.