ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the function of groups in the external and the internal world and look particularly at the function that all-male groups have for the consolidation of masculinity. It is Klein's discovery of projective identification that helps us see more clearly the fight against separation and separateness. If aggression becomes too violent the individual may attempt to defend against it by retreating into a merging type of feminine identification in this way establishing a complete vicious circle. Bion's theory of groups on the other hand was derived directly from his experience with therapeutic groups at the Tavistock Clinic in London. He confesses that he deliberately refrained from studying Freud's theory of groups, as he did not want his observations to be influenced by pre-conceptions about the nature of groups. Adolf Hitler as a young man seemed to be living already in an intense psychological mono-culture where internal objects had been wiped out.
