ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the founding paradigm and dependencies of group analysis are exhausted and that as a therapy its minimal influence, particularly in the public sector but also the private, creates a serious issue of stagnation. It also argues that group analysis has outlived its original dependence upon psychoanalysis, the parent discipline; worryingly, the former is likely tainted by some of the historical stance of superiority adopted by the latter, in many quarters. The chapter explores ideas which might provide valuable resources for group analysts, drawn from the realms of modern social theory and history. It offers the theory of rhetoric, positioning theory, and the paradigm of the dialogical self, all of which help to see communication between people in a complex light and the “self” as performative process and as multi-storied. At a cultural level, it is interesting to speculate on the lack of hold of group analysis—unlike psychoanalysis.
