The neurotic individual and the group

From Group-Analytic Psychotherapy: A Meeting of Minds by Harold Behr & Liesel Hearst, pg 10:

Neurosis, according to Foulkes, is a state of mind which develops when, as individuals, we get to be at odds with our group and become, to a varying degree, isolated from ourselves and others.

The neurotic position is by definition highly individualistic, and therefore works against the group. It acts as an irritant to both the individual and the group and leads, if left unchecked, to the isolation of the individual from the group. The individual’s so-called neurotic symptoms are in fact an aspect of him- or herself which cannot be communicated in words, and which can therefore only again expression in symptomatic form. For symptoms to become suitable for sharing, they must be translated into communicable language.

https://soundcloud.com/kuro-429308535/please-revere-me-my-purpose

#groupAnalysis #neuroticism #relationalReflexivity

What an eye witness description from Roger E. Money-Kyrle, cited in Barbara Ehrenreich’s (incredible) Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War, loc 290:

The people seemed gradually to lose their individuality and become fused into a not very intelligent but immensely powerful monster, which was not quite sane and therefore capable of anything. Moreover, it was an elementary tary monster … with no judgment and few, but very violent, passions.… [W]e heard for ten minutes about the growth of the Nazi Party, and how from small beginnings it had now become an overpowering force. The monster became self-conscious of its size and intoxicated by the belief in its own omnipotence.

https://markcarrigan.net/2024/07/25/the-monster-became-self-conscious-of-its-size-and-intoxicated-by-the-belief-in-its-own-omnipotence/

#crowds #fascism #monsters #relationalReflexivity