ABSTRACT
The chapter records a lightly edited interview with Earl Hopper, a distinguished group analyst, psychoanalyst, and sociologist, one of group analysis’ most important theoreticians. The chapter does not present a sequential argument, but rather a conversation with Christine Thornton in which Earl shares some of his thoughts about his long experience of consulting to organizations and how that relates to his theoretical writing. It ranges over many topics, including the tripartite matrix, role and culture, Indra’s net, large groups, the roles of consultants, leaders and managers, the ethics of working with teams, traumatogenic organizations and fear, envy and helplessness; the fourth basic assumption. It can be read as a companion piece to Earl Hopper’s substantive contributions.
