The title for the paper comes from T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (Eliot, 1948). In the poem, Prufrock, an isolated
person, describes the pain of relating, of miscommunication. ‘That is not
it at all, that is not what I meant at all.’ The possibility of sharing
love is not available. He feels defeated. The closing off of the self, either
partially or totally, is diametrically opposed to the challenge of group
relationships, which require the interaction and interpenetration of many selves.
This paper explores the implications for groups.
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