Traumatic Experience in the Unconscious Life of Groups: The Fourth Basic Assumption: Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification

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 new theory of the fourth basic assumption in the unconscious life of groups and group-like social systems. Located within a social, cultural and political transgenerational context, 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, Earl Hopper applies his theory of Incohesion to the treatment of 'difficult' patients in group analysis. The personification of aggregation and massification - patients with crustacean, contact-shunning and amoeboid, merger-hungry characteristics respectively - is illustrated with detailed clinical vignettes from heterogeneous groups

Earl Hopper is a supervisor and training analyst for the Institute of Group Analysis, the British Association of Psychotherapists and the London Centre for Psychotherapy.