Reviewing the group analytic approach to Large Groups’ therapeutic potential — learning from a three-year monthly sandwich with a Ukrainian community

Abstract

Revising the ‘locations of elaboration’ in group analysis shows that large groups have no less developmental and therapeutic impact on the individual and his relationship to society than small groups. The group-analytic large group can be considered as the potential space where the relations between individuals and their society can be investigated, elaborated and transformed. If free floating discussion is facilitated in the interaction among large group members, including the conductors, communication will allow the creation of a community in which even unbearable conflicts can be named and often contained and elaborated. Large groups provide a unique space in our modern life, where disordered relations with internal and external authorities can be faced and many other collective preoccupations coped with. Groups of 40+ participants are optimally prone to the elaboration of emerging shared concerns ranging from inclusion to rejection, socio-political identity formation, the splitting to subgroups and the restoration of peace-oriented matrices, as well as the accompaniment of war processes and other existential matrices.

Adding to the experiences with large groups per se, the potential and experiences with mixing large and small groups (e.g. the Sandwich or the Reflective Citizenship models) provide for even more unique opportunities to elaborate and digest social threats and excitements. Such multidimensional therapeutic space, enabled by fluid ‘locations of elaboration’ (Foulkes, 1948; Friedman 2024), extends the traditional group-analytic space for growth and therapy. These processes will be exemplified by a recent three-year process with Ukrainian colleagues.