Regression Tendencies and Conflict Generation in Groups Individuality versus Collectivity Dr. Athena Chatjoulis- Depart

1. Regression Tendencies and Conflict Generation in Groups Individuality versus Collectivity Dr. Athena Chatjoulis- Department of Communication and Media Studies, University of Athens.

2. - My experience from running groups of • young adults in short or long term psychotherapeutic groups • - Issues: • the way in which the ambivalence expressed by the members of the group to remain or not in the group was reflecting their ambivalence to remain or not in their job or even their ambivalence to remain in their relationship

3. Questions: Do I want to belong to a group? Do I want to be alone? Do I want to be inside or outside the system, or inside and outside the system – the work, the family

4. -> Discuss: • - how the study of the unconscious processes • that take place during group formation can help • us to understand: • -> the individual’s need of belongingness and • his ambivalent feelings concerning his desire to become a member of a group or stay out of it • how the collectivephenomena in any group, may • put the individual in a situation of insoluble • conflictby generating anxiety feelings and • regression tendencies

5. Argument -> This fundamental ambivalence between collectivity and individuality is even more prominent in post-modern flexible societies as it is the individual’s need of belongingness

6. The analysis is mainly centered on the “group-as-a-whole”approach and Bion’s theory and on the various stages the group goes through: -> the “emerging group stage”, -> the “fraternal community stage or the “affiliated group”, -> the “differentiated group”, -> the stage of “fragmented group” (Ettin, 1996, 2000, Neri, 1998) ->

7. The basic assumption for this type of analysis is that: the group is the primitive form of expression of any social organization and that humans as social animals perceive themselves only in relation to the group they belong to. Their “group-self” consists the core of their personal identity.

8. Groups are defined not as an aggregate cluster of persons, but as “collective formations of interacting individuals”, (Lewin, 1951)

9. Scientists who worked on group phenomena and mass psychology as well as analysts of individual psychodynamics (Le Bon, McDougall, Freud), associated the unconscious processes which underlie individual’s behavior with the behavior of small and large groups and the society as a whole, using psychoanalytical and sociological notions and models to describe and interpret relational and group phenomena.

10. In addition, research on the dual relation between “parent-child”, and on the therapeutic relationship between “analyst-client” and on the notions of transference and counter transference offered many insights to group psychology.

11. For example, the studies - on the defense mechanisms (Anna Freud), or - on the processes of projective identifications (Klein) were used to analyze how people try to protect themselves at any cost from personal and social stress in order to maintain an integrated ego. -Later they were used by other researchers (Zalesnik, 1984) to demonstrate how social systems defend themselves against collective stress in order to maintain their organizational cohesion.

12. “The group-as-a-whole”, “… Perhaps we ought to reverse the traditional assumptions,equally shared by psychoanalysts, about the individual being the ultimate entity and that group phenomena are to be interpreted through the individual. The opposite is true. The group, the community is the ultimate, primary unit of study and the inner processes of the individual are internalizationsof the forces operating in the groups the individualbelongs to” S.H.Foulkes

13. “The group-as-a-whole” approach Lewin (1951), Bion (1961, 1970), Foulkes (1964) - is the result of the special model for the analysis of group relations developed at the London Tavistock Institute of Human Relations Bion (1961), Rice (1963), Foulkes (1964). Rioch (1970) and Back (1972

14. “The group-as-a-whole” approach evolved in a heart of a century marked by two world wars Two fundamental themes are emphasized in this approach: a)      the perennial tension between individual and collective needs and b)the equally ubiquitous tension between authoritarian and democratic patterns of group life.

15. Overall these approaches suggest that the outcome of the union of any number of people who make up a group either for clinical, organizational or political purposes is a new entity with autonomous, evolving, structural,dynamic and relational attributes reflecting but overriding the individuals it is comprised of.

16. As Foulkes mentions: “the group-as-a-whole”is not just a turn of phrase, it is a living organism, as distinct from the individuals it is comprised of. It has mood and reactions, a spirit, a feeling and a particular atmosphere (Foulkes, 1964, p. 70).

17. Thus, when individuals become members of a group, their behavior changes and a collective identity emerges: a task group, a sports team, a lynch mob, a utopian community, an organization – they all become a new whole, a Gestalt, whereby the group is the point of focus and the individual members become the background.

18. Bion, speaks of the mental states (mentality) of the group: in the group there is a regressive mentality (which in some measure corresponds to Freud’s mass group) and evolutive mentality (shown, for example, in a capacity to co-operate in order to attain an end).

19. Bion: -> Turned his attention to the analysis of more primary levels of the individual’s mental life and concluded that group phenomena cannot be understood according to the model of the Oedipus complex or the model of family ties.  -> Developed his theory Using concepts from M. Klein object-relation theory, from Lewin’s field theory and From the theory of general systems (Bertalanffy, 1968).

20. Bion: life in any group evolves on two levels: on the level of task, which constitutes the ‘work group or rational group’, and on the level of primary psychic phenomena, which constitutes the ‘basic assumptions group’.

21. The work group is characterized by a state of co-operative and deliberate mental activity. The task is explicit, rational, conscious and immediately related to objective reality. For Bion, the ‘work group’ is a collective mentality and at the same time an aspect of the individual mind.

22. The phrase ‘work group’ used by Bion, is there to illustrate that a learning activity is necessary for the achievement of the group’s aims, and that participation in the ‘work-group’ also implies having developed some skills which Freud had indicated as characteristics of the individual’s Ego, that is attention, verbal representation and symbolic thought.

23. The basic assumptions group is characterized by an implicit, irrational, fantasy-dominated state which emerges when regression or emotional needs prevail. It is a collective expression of the group whereby the physical, psychological and mental elements are not differentiated but constitute a field where emotions arise instinctively and instantly overwhelming and dominating the mental activities of the group. It is a primitive mentality state.

24. In the basic assumption group the group operates as if certainthings were true like, for instance, that the leader is all-powerful and wise. This may lead to over-dependency on him. In other words, the primary needs, fantasies and desires of each group member come to surface. This may create an emotionally charged and illogical atmosphere which prevents the group from pursuing its task, i.e. from becoming a ‘work group’

25. The “basic assumptions” are: the basic assumption of dependency, the basic assumption of fight-flightand the basic assumption of pairing. At the basic assumptions level, the group behaves “as if” one of these states truly existed, and “as if” certain behaviors were vital for the survival of the group. “Basic” refers to the survival motivation of group; “assumption” underlines the fact that the survival motivation is based, not on fact or reality, but on the collective projections of the group

26. -> the basic assumption of dependency, Aim to attain security and protection from a leader ->the basic assumption of fight-flight “as if” its survival depends on some form of action manifested either as an attack or flight (flight from the group’s task, -> the basic assumption of pairing. establishment of bonding between two individuals -a pair- which will give “birth” to an idea or a new leader, a “Messiah” who will save the group, and help it complete its task.

27. In Bion’s essay, “Experiences in groups” (Bion, 1961), the two group states, ‘the work group’ and the ‘basic assumptions group’ do not exist in a continuum but appear as both concurrent and opposite. We could say, that the evolved man (expression of the work group) and regressed man (expression of primitive mentality) are present in both the caveman and his modern descendant technological man.

28. - Besides, the active and simultaneous presence of these two states both in the group as a whole and in each one of its members puts the individual in a situation of insoluble conflict. If he participates only in the work group, he feels deprived of warmth and strength. If he persists in the basic assumptions group, he knows he may find it impossible to pursue his own goals as a thinking individual.

29. The various stages the group goes through during its formation: -> the “emerging group stage”, -> the “fraternal community stage or the “affiliated group”, -> the “differentiated group”, -> the stage of “fragmented group” (Ettin, 1996, 2000, Neri, 1998)

30. -> the “emerging group stage”, is characterized by a collective illusion whereby the individuals-members of the group exist and interact as being in “the best group of the world”, on the one side, and by experiences of personality fragmentation, on the other.

31. -> the “emerging group stage”, Initially, a sense of euphoria grabsthe members of the group who are flooded by pleasant feelings of belongingsomewhere. “The aim is to become a team,a good team, where everybody is able to interact without fear of loosing their individuality”. This collective fantasy is an answer to the individual’s fear of fusion into the group. It is a desire for security, a desire to preserve a threatened ego.

32. -> the “emerging group stage”, This collective illusion is also a positive aspect in the group’s evolution because it is a way to answer the immediate need of members to be together, even if they still lack the ability to establish relationships between them.

33. -> the “emerging group stage”, Although they are still unable to constitute a group of people capable of working together, ‘they may nevertheless be together as if they were in a dream where everyone may walk his own way, speak his ownlanguage, incomprehensible to the others, but all of them still living in the same dream.

34. -> the “emerging group stage”, On the other hand,the regression tendencies prevailing in this stage reflect the level of the “basic assumptions group” where fantasies and emotions emerge and reinforce the struggle between collectivityand individuality. “The group should continue to exist as-a-whole… and work together to move on..but I don’t want to loose myself…

35. -> the “emerging group stage”, These opposing feelings however, may bring the individual in a state of confusion. What members experience as “individuality” at this stage is not autonomy but isolation. Autonomy and isolation are confounded for although members want to be autonomous, they also desire to co-exist in the group.

36. -> the “emerging group stage”, Thus, “autonomy can only be experienced as withdrawal” and becomes threatening In this stage, the need for differentiation and the need for relationships require a constant redefinition of self-image by the other object, a constant need to distinguish between the Ego, the ‘you’ and the ‘us’.

37. -> the “emerging group stage”, Anzieu, Bion and Neri, analyzing this stage of illusion and non-differentiation, talk about a state of loss of boundaries, where similar feelings occur as in the passage from sleep to waking. It is a stage where there are feelings of loss of reality, and where, although there is no detachment from experience, neither there is a possibility of directing one’s own participation in a voluntary and active way.

38. -> The fraternal Community Stage – or – The affiliated Group The processes of the emerging group state, gradually lead to construction of new group schemes by stimulating adequate collective forms of thinking and information processing. The thoughts of individuals-members of the group become relevant to each other as each member continues the thoughts or words of the members speaking before them (resonance phenomenon).

39. -> The fraternal Community Stage The discussion mainly concerns the state or experience of the group in the here and now communications and interrelations. It is the phase, in which there is a growing awareness of the existence and working potential of the group as a collective subject, and as a community capable of thought.

40. -> The fraternal Community Stage “the moment of fusion”, Jean Paul Sartre (1984) He suggests that there comes a moment in the evolution of a group, “the moment of fusion”, whereby what was previously an aggregate of people is transformed into a different coherent whole,a “suprapersonal whole”.

41. -> The fraternal Community Stage The true notion of collective thinking starts at the exact moment the group enters this stage of fusion whereby each individual emerges from isolation,exploitation, incapacity and takes an active part in the group. The individual is not alone in life but as a member of the group he mayadapt to reality or try to change it.

42. -> The fraternal Community Stage • Awareness of being a group: • people realize that their belonging to the group • is no longer under discussion • -They become more decline to put themselves at • risk • -They see the leader as being less rigid and • distant, and more human and vulnerable. • They loose their dependence on and the fear of • the leader (therapist) • They try to locate their personal thoughts and • questions within the group field.

43. The fraternal Community Stage • - Characterized a collective, productive • and creative marriage between its members. • The state of Bion’s “work group” prevails • - Members are not fused and the group does • not have to be one-dimensional. • - People discover themselves through relationships • and interactions with other group members • This state stimulates feelings of • “belonging somewhere and having a • common purpose”.

44. The “fragmented group • Emphasis is placed on individuality and differentiation. This becomes dysfunctional, the group splits. • A state of decomposition characterized by unsolved conflicts or autistic communication. • Members are not talking to each other or, if they do, they do not address each other but rather speak of each other. They feel isolated, separated and lost. The group fails to be a source of support, safety or identity.

45. The “differentiated group” is characterized by a well-organized and self-determined structure where the forces of collectivity and individualitytotally complement each other, The investigation of “personal roles” against “group roles” as well asmaintaining an isomorphic relation between members and the whole contribute to preserving the state of the “differentiated group”

46. In all stages of group evolution, members interact and interrelate by transferring and projecting emotions and values on the cultural level of the group. In the members’ consciousness, the group gradually turns into a common object they can share but also one to which they may project undesired emotions and actions.

47. Role of leader: Ask questions about the status of the group at every moment of its existence: - “when” and “how” differences between members can be evaluated andintegrated in the group-as-a-whole? - “when interactions between members hide aggressive feelings and conflicts? - “What are the concealed fears behind projections? - “What are the concealed primary needs? - “What ambivalent feelings are floating in the group and how could they be integratedin the group-as-a-whole?

48. “… If the individual abandons its difference within a group and allows the other members to influence it by way of suggestions and impositions, it conveys the impression that it does it because it feels the need to be in harmony with them and not in opposition – perhaps it does it “ihnen zu Liebe” (for their love). Freud (1930) Civilization and its Discontents,

49. A member of the small psychotherapy group, Michael, wonders: “I don’t know if I’m any good with my job, I’ve got nothing to compare it with” and continues, “I’m not sure I want to stay in this job”. “I, on the contrary”, says Helen, “ will do my best, I want to keep this job, I want to build up my CV, I want to work for other companies too”.

50. Accordingly, -Helen is worried when people are missing from the group; while she herself is always there, the first to arrive. -In contrast, Michael is always late, making excuses for his absence, always questioning if the group will manage to go on, or even if it is worth to exist.