Grup d´Analisi Barcelona

Introduction to “A Prototype of Group Model for Psychoanalysis: From the to the “

P1010876

A Prototype of Group Model for Psychoanalysis: From the <Group of two> to the <Group of 2 + n persons> (Juan Campos Avillar, 1990) by Hanne Campos

This is one of the major writings if not the most important one of the author, in which he investigates and offers answers to the question of the resistances of the psychoanalysts to make the step from psychoanalysis to groupanalysis. He presents the development of his concept of Professional Plexus from the ones of network, plexus and matrix put forward by S. H. Foulkes and the ideas of the latter as to that “any change in an individual who is part of such a personal network or plexus alters the total equilibrium within it; and as this applies to professionals as well as to any other person, there exists a profound interest in that this should not be uncovered”, since becoming conscious of this fact would imply having to face important changes in the context of the helping professions as well as  the ones of teaching and training.

Juan Campos derives the arguments of his analytical study of the “psychoanalytic cultural community” from three sources: 1) the revision of texts by different authors (Freud, Foulkes, Burrow, Bion, Glover and others), 2) the oral and written tradition, the so-called history, and 3) that which we carry imprinted as individuals and as groups on the level of our individual and collective unconscious, and its social contexts. The author makes reference to different projects which tried to put into practice these analytical studies of professional groups and their conclusions, and also presents the personal proposals he arrived at in the process.