Cohesion and Coherency in Group Analysis

Abstract

Before Pines, group analytic practitioners had emphasized the concept of cohesion as the main force in keeping the group together and, as such, a crucial therapeutic factor. Pines examined the concept of coherency in psychoanalysis as a key element in healthy human development. He innovatively applied to group analysis this concept of coherency as an organizing principle that enables higher levels of functioning, in contrast to the more primitive and undifferentiated group formations that are based on cohesion. The article uses clinical material from the author’s work to illustrate Pines’ ideas. The author made a clinical mistake, but he was able to reflect on and learn from his mistake. In turn, this therapeutic process enabled him to influence the group’s complex modus operandi: from one of cohesion to one of coherency.