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.

In this critique and extension of the work of S.H.Foulkes, Farhad Dalal presents a thorough contemporary appraisal of the theory of group analysis and its relevance to psychoanalysis as a whole. The author argues that Foulkes failed to develop a specific set of group concepts, relying instead on the traditional individualistic framework of Freud. The book explores why Foulkes failed to escape from the orthodox mother-infant paradigm and offers a new post-Foulkesian interpretation of group analytic theory. Taking the Group Seriously is divided into six parts which trace the history of ideas behind group work, and draws on a wide range of subjects to support its thesis: not only psychoanalysis and group analysis, but also sociology, biology, chaos theory, genetics, economics, game theory and discourse theory. Using the author's practical group experience and including the latest ideas on the subject, this volume will be of interest to all those working in the field of psychoanalysis.

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 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.

Imagine receiving a shocking email from a church member stating that you, the pastor, have mishandled church funds and that you should resign for the good of the congregation. Soon you discover that the church member sent the email to many other church members. Additional lies will follow until the fateful day comes when the members vote to fire you, or the bishop dismisses you, or you resign for sheer survival. You are experiencing church abuse of clergy, which is the topic of this book. Clergy will gain an entirely new understanding of church abuse of clergy that afflicts many pastors and their loved ones by reading this book. The view of church abuse of clergy being presented is a new paradigm that challenges older explanations of the church abuse. This book shows that clergy must begin collaborating in order to discover effective solutions to the church abuse of clergy problem. Clergy must become empowered to confront the church at all levels and support one another in the face of church abuse of clergy. A very toxic ministry situation exists throughout the United States and internationally, which must be challenged!