Social Unconscious Theory: Contributions of Group Analysis to Psychosocial Studies

Abstract

This chapter introduces the theory of the social unconscious from its roots in the work of S.H. Foulkes in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany to the most recent theoretical developments in contemporary group analysis, explored by Earl Hopper, Haim Weinberg, and their collaborators. From the mid-1940s onward, Foulkes’s ground-breaking work replaced the traditional dichotomies between individual and society with a framework that confers value on their interdependencies – as discussed by Norbert Elias – based on the intrinsic relationality of human beings. In this respect, the psychoanalytical, sociological, philosophical, and political dimensions in the study of social unconscious theory require a postmodern thinking akin to the trans-disciplinarity and criticality of psychosocial studies. Therefore, building on investigations of the social unconscious in persons, groups, and societies and using the concept of tripartite matrices as a benchmark, this chapter unveils affinities between group analytic epistemology and psychosocial studies. It also introduces Latin American psychoanalytic field theory, especially through Pichon-Rivière’s concept of dialectic spiral and its importance in the exploration of the multidimensionality of socially unconscious processes. For Pichon-Rivière, individual and society form a unity, a single dynamic field where a spiral dialectic process occurs between the internal and external worlds, creating a fluid interchange of continuities and discontinuities between them. This Latin American perspective, not very well known in English-speaking psychoanalytical and group analytical circles, underpins a new contribution to the development of psychosocial studies.