ABSTRACT
W. R. Bion's description of group members unconsciously cooperates in a few characteristic, repetitive patterns. The group members share a basic assumption about their purpose which still informs not only the observations of group interactions that do fall into the patterns he identified, but also the efforts to comprehend others analysts who discern which apparently do not. Among the various basic assumptions, this chapter focuses on oneness (baO); me-ness (baM); grouping (or baG). It also provides the cases of the groups in which the author observed these patterns. The chapter further describes events in a group of educators and other professionals employed by an urban school district, whose purpose was to form an interdisciplinary working group to plan and implement a project to train and support elected officers in running parent organizations. The descriptions of baO and baM evidently arose from a combination of specific experiences of working conferences based on Bion's thought, and more general observations of societal trends.
