Becoming Conscious of the Human Group

Abstract

Groups have been shown to be effective therapeutic tools in the hands of skilled group conductors. Clients often observe that they feel better somehow, but that they do not know how this has happened. The author proposes that group analytic groups heal because they evoke the `Human Group', the species-specific group which evolved together with other facets of human biology, and which formed the hunter—gatherer tribes up to the spread of agriculture 10,000 years ago. The author states that, besides the theoretical and philosophical notions of the group, and of the social unconscious, there are also historical and pre-historical notions. Some of these notions can be found in primatology, palaeontology, archaeology, anthropology, and sociology, when writings in these disciplines are viewed with a focus on the group.