ABSTRACT
Large groups are a feature of any programme offering group relations training. A large group is composed of all the participants in the conference, together with two or more consultants. In particular, consultants offer working hypotheses from their experiences of being-with the group in their roles to address the significance and signification of the psychic, political, and spiritual relatedness present in the context of the large group. The large group in a working conference is a public context, with boundaries of task, time, and territory. It is the meeting-place of Self and other. Working with the religious in large groups led to understand that the relatedness they had with their God was manifested in their relationships not only with each other, but with the consultants as authority. This is well enough understood in terms of transference and countertransference. The fear that the large group will take on mob-like characteristics is among the causes of survival behaviour in large groups.
