Glossary
From the Latin glossarĭum, the glossary is a catalogue of words or concepts defined, explained or commented of a specific discipline or field of study —in this case the group method of analysis or group of analysis— or also a set of commentaries on texts of an author —in this case various authors. Due to this multiplicity of similar terms although not exactly identical and the diversity of authors dedicated to one and the same field of stud y —the human group— who depending on circumstances have in mind different aspects or objectives of investigation, in the present glossary we facilitate the reader the links which will permit him/her to follow the development of the conceptual differences in function of the historical, professional and personal contexts in each case.
In a field of study concerned with the human individual and groups, the definition of the concepts as well as their variation and possibility of reformulation have become a sign of health of communication. In this sense, the concept of health as well as the one of change became the concepts that underlie the groupanalytic development of the members of Grup d’Anàlisi Barcelona.
It is our expectation that this glossary be useful to every groupanalyst, to every professional interested in group work to choose those concepts which make sense of his practice and to get to know about the predecessors and antecedents of his own research and his own formulations.
The definition and scope of the term depends on the author consulted and because of this we offer the approximations of the pioneers in the use of the term group analysis. On pressing the link of the name of each author you accede to his particular conceptualization and a definition of some of the terms the author uses.
GROUP ANALYSIS / GROUP METHOD OF ANALYSIS. The approximation of T. Burrow
Group analysis: Term introduced by T. Burrow (1875-1950) in the middle of the twenties. It is a method developed by Burrow for investigating disorders of human conduct. Later he changed over to phyloanalysis without renouncing to group analysis. Phyloanalysis or group analysis contemplates the symptoms of the individual and of society as the external aspects of the alteration of tensional processes which affect the equilibrium of the internal reactions of the organism as a whole.
GROUP-ANALYSIS. The approximation of S. H. Foulkes
GROUP ANALYSIS: Is a method of psychotherapy in small groups (8-12 people) created by S. H. Foulkes (1898-1976) around 1940 which combines the psychoanalytic insights with the understanding of social and interpersonal functioning. It puts the emphasis on the relationship between the individual and the rest of the group having as a result the strengthening of both and a greater integration of the individual in his community, family and social network.
Further, group analysis is a method of investigation of the functioning of groups and the behavior of the individual in its social aspects. Consequently, group analysis constitutes a method of investigation which can be applied to healthy and ill individuals, to primary and secondary groups or social organizations with the objective of therapy, training and learning.
GRUP D’ANÀLISI – GROUP OF ANALYSIS. The approximation of J. Campos
The group of analysis inter-pares (professional groups) is understood as a group of reference which implies that more than offering models of identification it promotes the development of a group culture, an unavoidable change still pending in the step that goes from psychoanalysis to group analysis.
In this sense, GdAB defines “The group method of analysis” as: Any group work with an added analytic function, inspired by the principles of psychoanalysis as well as those of group analysis. The point of departure is the fact that the human being is in essence radically social and that, as it was conceived by S. H. Foulkes, the group is the matrix of the mental processes of the individual, which are transpersonal in nature. Just as psychoanalysis has the aim of making conscious what is unconscious, the group method of analysis has the aim of overcoming the resistances to cooperative action, which includes psychoanalytic reflection; this is to say, it aspires to promote an analytic attitude that facilitates the establishment of social contexts which permit the study of sociological, psychological and biological factors that interfere with that capacity of cooperative action of the human being as individual and as species within its ecosystem. It is a methodology apt to be taken on board by anybody who subscribes these ideas or the ones generated in turn. In this sense it is addressed not only to professionals of the therapeutic field but to any person interested in the process of change individual as well as social. The group method of analysis entails interdisciplinary cross fertilization that does not imply the loss of the professional identity of origin, something of utmost importance when approaching the social problems of today.
LARGE GROUP. The approximation of Pat de Maré
The large group constitutes a particular theoretical frame of reference created by Pat de Maré (1916-2008) around 1975. In the large group we go beyond the context of the personal and familiar to enter the socio-cultural context where we can analyze the social myths (the collective unconscious). The objective of the large group is not so much to socialize the individual than to humanize society through the process of demystification.
Pioneers
This section makes special mention of the leading authors in the group work of the last century, and which served as background, as a body of theory that has cemented the road to the analysis group.
“Freudian Groups” is a chapter of the unpublished book “The Group Method of Analysis” in which Juan Campos retraces the roots of groupanalysis in Freud’s group relationships and the development of his psychoanalysis.
“Who is Foulkes?” is also a chapter of the unpublished book on “The Group Method of Analysis” dedicated to S. H. Foulkes (1898-1976), the author who at the beginning of World War II develops the ideas of group analysis, first in relation to patients seen in the context of a general medical practice and later in a military hospital. Juan Campos draws an inviting and thought provoking portrait of the author considering the scarce biographical material available.
Juan Campos, in an important tour de force of investigation, presents us with a “live” Trigant Burrow (1875-1950), the pioneer of groupanalysis who first used the term for his method of group research; also a chapter of the unpublished book on “The Group Method of Analysis”.
Pat de Maré was one of the two original authors who emerged from post-Foulkesian Group Analysis (London). Members of Grup d’Anàlisi Barcelona had the privilege of knowing and working with him personally. A collection of his major writings was translated and published by Gd’AB into Castilian, including his famous diagram of the three cultures.