The author discusses Fairbairn's concept that psychological health represents the development from immature dependence, to mature interdependence between a fully differentiated `self 'and `other'. This is considered alongside Foulkes' ideas on exchange. The author proposes that anxiety on joining a group causes defensive regression. Exchange is avoided by the adoption of two proposed defences: self-denying fusion, or narcissistic fusion. Resolution occurs via the transition from fusion, through joining, to belonging, as one amongst peers, with whom reciprocal exchange is expressed via the discourse of the group.
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