Trends. Group Psychology and War Planning

This Trends article discusses the importance of group dynamics and mood in a war setting

Protests, “acting-out”, group psychology, surplus enjoyment and neoliberal capitalism

How should one make sense of the recent student protests across South Africa, which seem to be motivated by grievances relating to various forms of financial exclusion, from registration and tuition fees to costs of accommodation, and later pre-election protests, triggered by competition among would-be party candidates? It appears that Freud and Lacan’s countervailing psychoanalytical concepts of “acting-out” and “transference” cast explanatory light on this variegated phenomenon – the former insofar as it is an index of repressed, unarticulated motives manifesting themselves in irrational behaviour resistant to “analysis”, instead of ethically accountable “acts”, and the latter, on the contrary, designating a process according to which subjects are receptive to, and act (or speak) according to the requirements of “successful analysis”, including the “subject supposed to know”. Cognisance must also be taken of the fact that the protestors constitute(d) groups, and that it should therefore be approached as such in psychoanalytical terms. Recourse to the Freudian notion of “group psychology” is heuristically helpful in this regard. This is augmented by focusing on what has, it is argued, functioned to trigger the protest behaviour, namely neoliberal capital, by way of considering Lacan’s account of capitalist discourse in Seminar 17 – together with its insightful interpretation by Juliet MacCannell – particularly the relation between surplus value and surplus enjoyment

Community identity, life satisfaction, empowerment and health: suggesting a model for the immigrant population

The academic literature shows that studies in the fields of Community Psychology and Group Psychology have reached the same conclusion: belonging to and identifying with a group has an impact on health. However, when the studies are reviewed, there seems to be little communication between those engaged in these two lines of work, as contributions made from the perspective of Community are not compared with those made from that of Social Identity. Therefore, this study opts for an integrative perspective that makes possible progress towards a political/social viewpoint. Specifically, it is sought to understand the relationship between identification with the neighbourhood in which one lives (what has been called "community identity") and the mental health of Malaga's immigrant population, a model being proposed in which the relationship between health and identity is mediated by empowerment.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Government of Spain's Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, reference: PSI2013-40508-

The Purpose of Our Efforts

This year’s APA Convention in San Francisco was something of a homecoming for the division, for it was in that same city, some 18 years ago, that group psychology and group psychotherapy first took the stage as a newly founded division within APA. Only a few months earlier this fledgling coalition of dedicated supporters of group approaches had successfully petitioned APA for official divisional recognition. As that petition explained, it was time for psychologists to focus on groups and group-based approaches to adjustment, arguing that there “are two basic psychological approaches to human life and to mental health; one through individual psychology, the other through group psychology” (quoted in Andronico, 1999, p. 179)

Towards a Lacanian group psychology: the prisoner's dilemma and the trans-subjective

Revisiting Lacan's discussion of the puzzle of the prisoner's dilemma provides a means of elaborating a theory of the trans-subjective. An illustration of this dilemma provides the basis for two important arguments. Firstly, that we need to grasp a logical succession of modes of subjectivity: from subjectivity to inter-subjectivity, and from inter-subjectivity to a form of trans-subjective social logic. The trans-subjective, thus conceptualized, enables forms of social objectivity that transcend the level of (inter)subjectivity, and which play a crucial role in consolidating given societal groupings. The paper advances, secondly, that various declarative and symbolic activities are important non-psychological bases—trans-subjective foundations—for psychological identifications of an inter-subjective sort. These assertions link interesting to recent developments in the contemporary social psychology of interobjectivity, which likewise emphasize a type of objectivity that plays an indispensible part in co-ordinating human relations and understanding

The Relationship of Group Psychology to the Work of the Holy Ghost

The thesis which this paper will seek to set forth and defend is that there is a relationship existing between the two. This relationship, however, does not reach the status of a. correlation. The two are not equal, rather, group psychology is a tool through which a minister can become a more effective agent in the work of the Holy Ghost

Group Psychotherapy with Underachievers

The aim of this paper is to point out the opportunities and possibilities of group psychology in helping underachievers particularly at the college level. Due to lack of available information on this topic, it was necessary first to examine group psychotherapy and underachievers separately and then to try correlating the two areas