ABSTRACT
The view of the group as a system of object relations implies representational elements which can be experienced and expressed in any number of locations and subsystems. For a basic ‘vocabulary’ of such elements, the concepts of space, boundary, and object have been postulated as cognitive/affective universals which apply to the individual, to interactions, and to the group-as-a-whole. These are forms of experience elaborated by the principle of container/ contained and rules of hierarchical transformation into multi-level group systems.
