The social unconscious is vital for understanding persons and their groupings, ranging from families to societies, committees to organizations, and from small to median to large therapeutic groups, and essential for comprehensive clinical work. This series of volumes of contributions from an international network of psychoanalysts, analytical psychologists, group analysts and psychodramatists draw on the classical ideas of Freud, Klein and Jung, Bion, Foulkes and Moreno, and on contemporary relational perspectives, self-psychology and neuroscience. Volume I is concerned mainly with the theory of the social unconscious. It is focused on topics such as location, sociality, the social brain, identity, ideology, the foundation matrix, social psychological retreats, false collective self-objects, the collective unconscious and its archetypes and social dreaming. Reviews and Endorsements: “The clearest and most definitive statement about unconscious processes in social groups to date. A momentous volume that will define the field for decades to come; essential reading for all of us.”
- Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis, University College London, and Chief Executive , Anna Freud Centre, London ”This edited volume of erudite papers places the topic of the social unconscious in the framework of contemporary psychoanalytic and group theory. Compelling reading, stimulating, informative, and well written.”
- Richard Billow, PhD, Clinical Professor and Director of the Group Program of the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies , Adelphi University, New York ”An international collection that looks into the psyche and out to the social world, far into the past and deeply into the present, providing an integrated perspective on the effects of cultural and social forces on the continuing development of individuals, families and social organizations. It points to a future in which psychoanalysis can arrive at a fuller understanding of the human condition.”
- Jill Savege Scharff, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry , Georgetown University ”A collage of essays on overlapping and interdependent areas of theory and clinical application, which is accessible to the beginning clinician in individual or group work, and will extend the reach of the most sophisticated theoretician.”
- David Scharff, MD, coordinator of the International Psychotherapy Institute and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry , Uniformed Services University of the Health Services and Georgetown University ”Outstanding clinicians from four continents explore the concept and implications of the social unconscious, filled with information on the myriad of ways that psychic and social realities intersect, including socio-political structures and their effects on individuals.”
- Howard D. Kibel, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York Medical College and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychiatry , Weil Medical College of Cornell University ”A major contribution to the literature about how we are governed by social and cultural forces that we glimpse mostly only in passing. This collection draws on the work of major contemporary theorists, and offers a definitive account of the social unconscious that will be of value to everyone working on the interfaces between psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, social theory, and group analysis.”
- Stephen Frosh, PhD, Professor of Psychology , Birkbeck College, London ”The Introduction to this book, written by its co-editors, is a cornerstone for the understanding of the complex concept of the social unconscious. A brilliant and precise historical review. a precious gift to group analysts the world over.”
- Hanna Biran, psychoanalyst and group analyst, Tel Aviv, Israel Table of Contents:
Contents
Introduction – Earl Hopper and Haim Weinberg
The Concept of the Social Unconscious in the work of S.H. Foulkes – Dieter Nitzgen
A. Organismic Perspectives
1. Mirror Neurons, Sociality and the Species Homo Sapiens – Tom Ormay
2. The Social Brain – Malcolm Pines
3. The Group Mind, Functional Sub-Grouping and Interpersonal Neurobiology – Susan Gantt and Yvonne Agazarian
B. Relational Perspectives
1. The Co-Unconsciousness and the Social Unconscious – Jorge Burmeister
2. The Social Unconscious and Ideology – Farhad Dalal
3. Social Unconsciousness: verb, background, field of identity – Martin Weegmann
C. Systemic Perspectives
1. The Foundation Matrix and the Social Unconscious – Regine Scholz
2. The False Collective-Self – Helena Klimova
3. Social Manifestations of ‘Psychic Retreats’ – Marina Mojovic
D. The Numinous and the Unknown
1. The Social Unconscious and the Collective Unconscious – Stephanie Fariss
2. Intuiting Knowledge from the Social Unconscious with Special Reference to Social Dreaming – Gordon Lawrence Earl Hopper is a psychoanalyst, group analyst and organizational consultant in private practice. He is a supervisor and training analyst for the Institute of Group Analysis, the British Association of Psychotherapists and the London Centre for Psychotherapy. An honorary tutor at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, and a member of the Post-Doctoral Program at Adelphi University, New York. Earl Hopper is a past President of the International Association of Group Psychotherapy and a past Chairman of The Group of Independent Psychoanalysts of The British Psychoanalytical Society. Haim Weinberg is a psychologist, group analyst and certified group therapist in private practice. Teaching at the Wright Institute, Berkeley, and the Alliant International University, Sacramento. He leads a group psychotherapy Doctoral Program at the professional School of psychology, Sacramento. He is a past President of the Israeli Group Psychotherapy Association, and the president-elect of the Northern Group Psychotherapy Society. |
