ABSTRACT
This chapter considers four domains in which group analysis, as therapy and theory, can play a modest role in containing or illuminating some complex issues of the contemporary world. The four domains are democracy, older adult population, identity politics, and values. Group analysis is quite different from many popular, lifestyle psychological approaches but is but one amongst a whole field of competing professional therapies and reflexive approaches, and one based on its own ethic of communication and corresponding assumptions about “what helps”. The relatives group service was a slow-open, weekly group, strongly influenced by group analysis and which could accommodate newcomers at short notice. Political theorists argue that the vigorous democratic expansion of civil society is important in containing an evermore complex world and in creating conditions for improved governance. Group analysis must continually adjust to changing social realities, policies, and priorities, as they affect different population groups.
