Beyond the Anti-Group: Survival and transformation

267 Pages·2014·4.63 MB·English

by  Morris Nitsun

Beyond the Anti-Group
Beyond the Anti-Group: Survival and transformation builds on the success of Morris
Nitsun’s influential concept of the anti-group, taking it into new domains of thought and
practice in the current century. ‘A historical and ideological breakthrough’ (Tuttman 1991),
the concept focuses on anxiety and hostility within, towards and between groups, as well
as the destructive potential of groups. In Beyond the Anti-Group, Morris Nitsun continues
his inquiry into the clinical implications of the anti-group but also explores the concept
beyond the consulting room, in settings as wide-ranging as cultural and environmental
stress in the twenty-first century, the fate of public health services and the themes of
contemporary art.
Groups are potentially destructive but also have the capacity for survival, creativity and
transformation. Focusing on the interplay between the two, Morris Nitsun explores the
struggle to overcome group impasse and dysfunction and to emerge stronger. Why does
this happen in some groups and not others? What are the conditions for group transformation?
How does this affect individuals, groups, organizations and societies? By tracking this
process in a range of cultural settings, the author weaves a rich tapestry in which group
psychotherapy, organizational process and the arts come together in unexpected and novel
ways. The author draws on group analysis and the Foulkesian tradition as his overall
discipline but within a critical frame that questions the relevance of the approach in a
changing world, highlighting new directions and opportunities. Questions of group and
organizational leadership and their contribution to anti-group processes are a further theme.
Readers of Beyond the Anti-Group will be stimulated by the depth, breadth and
creativity of the author’s analysis and by the excursion into new fields of inquiry. This
book offers new scope, new ideas and new impetus for psychotherapists, group analysts
and group practitioners in general, students of group and organizational processes and
those working on the boundary between psychotherapy and the arts.
Morris Nitsun is a consultant psychologist in Camden and Islington NHS Trust,
psychotherapist at the Fitzrovia Group Analytic Practice, Training Analyst at the Institute
of Group Analysis, and Convenor, Diploma in Innovative Group Interventions, Anna
Freud Clinic. His books The Anti-group: Destructive Forces in the Group and their
Creative Potential (Routledge, 1996) and The Group as an Object of Desire (Routledge,
2006) have been described as ‘classics in the field’. He has lectured and run workshops in
countries across the world. He is also a practising artist who exhibits regularly in London.
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Beyond the Anti-Group
Survival and transformation
Morris Nitsun
First published 2015
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Morris Nitsun
The right of Morris Nitsun to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nitsun, Morris.
Beyond the anti-group : survival and transformation / Morris Nitsun. –
First Edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-415-68736-2 (hbk) – ISBN 978-0-415-68738-6 (pbk) –
ISBN 978-1-315-73945-8 (ebk) 1. Social interaction–Technological
innovation. 2. Great Britain. National Health Service. 3. Group
psychotherapy. I. Title.
HM1111.N58 2014
302–dc23
2014023386
ISBN: 978-0-415-68736-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-68738-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73945-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
To Shirley,
With love and deep thanks
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Contents
Foreword, John Cape ix
Preface and Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
PART I
The wider context 13
1 The question of survival in the twenty-first century: challenges
to group analysis 15
2 An anti-group perspective of organizational change: the case of
the National Health Service (NHS) 36
PART II
The clinical setting 57
3 Group analytic psychotherapy on the edge 59
4 Group analysis and cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) 87
5 The group as refuge: group psychotherapy in inner London 110
PART III
Developmental perspectives 135
6 Being a group therapist: a journey through life 137
7 Falling in love: a group analytic perspective 160
viii Contents
PART IV
Group analysis and the arts 183
8 Group analysis and performance art 185
9 Rebel without a cause: authority and revolt as themes in
the cinema 211
Summary and conclusions 235
Postscript 240
Index 245
Foreword
I welcome this third book by Morris Nitsun on group analysis. Unlike the first
two, it covers a wide range of themes, reflecting the range of interests and
experience of its author. In the Preface, he comments on the book being a product
of his varied career as a psychologist, psychotherapist and manager in public
services, as a group analyst in private practice and as a practising artist. Each of
these would be a full career for most people, but he has pursued them simultaneously
and has inhabited each fully, making contributions that have been important to
people in all three worlds. The book is permeated by all three worlds. While the
content of each chapter may reflect more one or another and the lens he focuses
on each is that of group analytic thinking, the book overall reflects his own
“coherence of experience” and is in this way a distinctly personal book. In terms
of group analytic thinking, the book is unified by the concept of the anti-group, his
important and original contribution to the field, and the sub-themes of survival
and transformation, which are particularly relevant at the present time. But in this
Foreword, I shall take as my theme the three worlds that the author represents.
For over 40 years, since 1969, Morris Nitsun has worked in the National
Health Service, initially as a psychologist, psychotherapist and manager of NHS
psychological therapy services, and latterly as a trainer and group consultant.
The NHS is an extraordinary national icon, established with a visionary mission
of providing free healthcare for all and continuing to enjoy unrivalled public
support, but subject to enormous political and financial pressures and internally
prone to schisms – clinicians vs managers, doctors vs nurses, psychologists vs
psychotherapists, psychoanalytic psychotherapists vs cognitive behavioural
therapists, health commissioners vs hospitals, government of the day vs the
NHS. An important contribution of this book is the understanding it brings to
these schisms, most directly in the chapter on NHS change, but also in other
chapters. In the vast organization of the NHS, this is difficult territory to see
clearly and write about when inside and a part of the process. What Morris
Nitsun brings personally and in his analysis is an ability to embrace the full
emotional impact of these schisms while keeping in mind the strengths and
positive ambitions of each NHS tribe to contribute to the mission of the NHS.
With increasing pressures expected on all healthcare systems from public