Emotive and Control Groups as Mutated New American Utopian Communities

Abstract

Popularity of the vast range of emotive and control groups in America today cannot be explained simply by the reputed success of psychoanalysis and groups derived from it and other psychological theories. In their ideal type, these proliferating groups relate to the utopian tradition in Western civilization, functioning as do all utopias. Utopias compensate for felt difficulties-in this case the lack of personal satisfactions in mass culture and the paucity of emotive, integrative, and control mechanisms. Unlike earlier utopian communities, most emotive and control groups are part time, but their parttime nature is consistent with the segmented structure of modern life. Utopias can incorporate recessive cultural genes, enclose deviance or institutionalize it, offer solidarity, catharsis, control, and hope for their members, and sometimes serve as change models. In contemporary America, not only do emotive and control groups serve these ends; in addition, they are effective because they are legitimated by all three types of authority-traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational. The extent of the groups is diagnostic of the crisis in American culture.