When foundation matrices move—challenges for a group analysis of our time

Abstract

This lecture explores the recent and further to be expected radical changes in our nowadays world, asking for the implied consequences—for every organization/community on all levels, for every person—as well as for us as group analysts. To understand the underlying processes reference is made to the work of Karl Mannheim and Foulkes’ concept of the foundation matrix. The emotional strain of reworking its basic dimensions—as group boundaries, gender relations, relations between the generations, their power implications, which entrench the whole social structure and hence history—are carefully outlined.