ABSTRACT
Cultural identity building and cultural transmission are intrinsically connected to the comprehension of group psychology and its dynamics, particularly in what way the concepts of ‘ego ideal’, ‘cultural ideal’, ‘narcissism’, and ‘superego’ are related to one another. This chapter discusses that these ideas, is therefore unquestionably central for this essay. In 1921, in Group Psychology and Analysis of Ego, Freud emphasized the positive valuable aspects of the relationship between the ego and its ideal—when the features of the ego coincide with the standards of its ideal, resulting in a feeling of release and triumph. In the field of therapeutic work, Bion was the psychoanalytical author who contributed most, not only to the understanding of therapeutic work with groups, but also to creating a new vocabulary. On the contrary, the cultural ideal is founded on the ‘narcissistic impulse reminiscence’, and hence has a central role in social human development taking place in the latency period.
