ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 traced the development of Freudian thinking about the relationship between the individual and the group in the work of Bion and later psychoanalysts and those in¯uenced by them. Throughout this development, the basic view was retained of the group as a phenomenon promoting regression in individuals unless clear group organization and high levels of rational autonomy in individuals prevented this. Some formulations drew on general systems theory, for example, Durkin. Yet others, for example, Agazarian, presented an understanding of the group in terms of cybernetic systems. The analyst, or therapist, was the objective observer of the systems. Foulkes and subsequent group analytic writers also incorporated systems thinking into their approach to group therapy, but in a somewhat different way to be explored in Chapter 15.
