Ego and Self in the Group

Abstract

The psychodynamic concepts of ego and Self are interwoven with group phenomena in a number of ways. Even though ego/Self are at an opposite pole to group, they are also what makes up the group, and are in need of the group for attaining their fullest state. The group may also be viewed as having the character and quality of an ego/Self, albeit at a new level of conceptualization, as an entity in its own right. Understanding ego and Self as representing different experiential modes of the subject's relatedness to his or her object enables us to better understand ego and Self in the group, and can help account more fully for the different atmospheres that prevail in the Work Group as compared to the Basic Assumption Group. Such an understanding is in turn greatly facilitated by viewing experiences in groups through the experiential modalities of Being and Doing, which are embedded in the dimension of merger versus separateness of Self and object.