ABSTRACT
The idea that there exists a group psyche, and a psychic reality corresponding to it, may come as a surprise to psychoanalysts who are generally only familiar with individual psychic reality. It may be of interest to them if we try to articulate these two organizations of psychic reality. The model of the group psychic apparatus was built in order to achieve this objective, but its ultimate aim was to understand the reciprocal relations between the formations of the unconscious in groups and in intrapsychic space. The psychic reality specific to the group is defined by the common and shared psychic spaces that are constructed in it and by the processes and formations that develop in it under the influence of three orders of determination. The psychic reality of the group cannot be reduced to that of each subject, nor to that of the intersubjective relations formed in the group.
