The World within the Group

The World within the Group is an original and ambitious endeavour to connect group analysis to philosophy, history, and modern social theory. The book argues that group analysis needs theoretical renewal to remain relevant, and that philosophy is a valuable resource for such thinking. In particular, the work of three philosophers is examined: Nietzsche, Dewey, and Gadamer, each being associated with "pragmatic-perspective" inquiry. The author demonstrates that group analysis is compatible with such inquiry, and that we understand and intervene from within the horizon of specific traditions of training and theory. Group analysis typifies an unremitting relational stance, valuing openness of dialogue, and moving in and out of the perspectival worlds of the participants. The book also offers a re-formulation of the concept of social unconscious, seen as a discursive world of production and articulation. Drawing on contemporary social theories, it chimes with the spirit of Elias's historical approach.

Martin Weegmann

New International Library of Group Analysis Foreword , Preface , Introduction , Working intersubjectively: theory and therapy , Personal horizons, unformulated experience, and group analysis , Perspectivism, pragmatism, group analysis , The articulated space of social unconsciousness , Reforming subjectivity: personal, familial, and group implications of English reformation , An exclusionary matrix: degenerates, addicts, homosexuals , A modern monster? The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , "And thereby hangs a tale": narrative dimensions of human life , Group analysis in contemporary society , Postscript , Glossary