The Anti-Group: Destructive Forces in the Group and their Creative Potential (International Library of Group Psychotherapy and Group Process)

337 Pages·1996·0.89 MB·English

by  Morris Nitsun

The Anti-Group
The ‘anti-group’ has been described as an ideological and historical
breakthrough. It is a concept which challenges the conventional
optimism of group psychotherapy. The disruptive elements it
comprises place a burden on the therapist and threaten the integrity
of the group. Nevertheless, understanding the ‘anti-group’ offers
therapists new perspectives on the nature of group relationships and
alternative strategies for managing destructive behaviour.
Theories of group psychotherapy tend to polarise creative and
destructive aspects. Morris Nitsun offers critical evaluations of the
contributions made by S.H.Foulkes and Wilfred Bion, and
demonstrates how, in practice, these forces interact and even
complement each other. The ‘anti-group’, which manifests itself in a
variety of ways ranging from demoralisation to excessive dropping
out, expresses the frustration and anger that patients often
experience. These feelings are invoked in intense ways during group
sessions. Recognising the anti-group offers the therapist alternative
coping strategies, helps to liberate the creative processes and
strengthens the theoretical base of group psychotherapy.
Taking a wider view of the subject, Morris Nitsun places the ‘anti-
group’ in the context of universal ambivalence about groups, which
is evident in social settings such as the family, the workplace and the
culture at large.
Morris Nitsun is Head of Psychology, Psychotherapy and
Counselling Services, Redbridge Health Care NHS Trust, and a
member of the teaching staff at the Institute of Group Analysis,
London.
The International Library of Group Psychotherapy
and Group Process
General Editor: Dr Malcolm Pines
Institute of Group Analysis, London, and formerly of the
Tavistock Clinic, London
The International Library of Group Psychotherapy and Group Process
reflects the group-analytic approach to psychotherapy from both practical
and theoretical viewpoints. It takes into account developments in related
areas and includes important works in translation.
Other titles in the series
Basic Aspects of Psychoanalytic Group Therapy
Peter Kutter
Bion and Group Psychotherapy
Edited by Malcolm Pines
The Evolution of Group Analysis
Edited by Malcolm Pines
Jacob Levy Moreno 1889–1974: Father of Psychodrama, Sociometry
and Group Psychotherapy
Rene F.Marineau
Memorial Candles: Children of the Holocaust
Dina Wardi
Object Relations, the Self and the Group: A Conceptual Paradigm
Charles Ashbach and Victor L.Schermer
Personal Transformation in Small Groups: A Jungian Perspective
Robert D.Boyd
The Practice of Group Analysis
Edited by Jeff Roberts and Malcolm Pines
The Psyche and the Social World: Developments in Group-Analytic
Theory
Edited by Dennis Brown and Louis Zinkin
Psychoanalytic Therapy in the Hospital Setting
Paul Janssen
The Sexual Relationship: An Object Relations View of Sex and the
Family
David E.Scharff
Using Groups to Help People
Dorothy Whitaker
A Work Book of Group-Analytic Interventions
David Kennard, Jeff Roberts and David Winter
Ring of Fire: Primitive Affects and Object Relations in Group
Psychotherapy
Edited by Victor L.Schermer and Malcolm Pines
The Third Eye: Supervision of Analytic Groups
Edited by Meg Sharpe
The Anti-Group
Destructive forces in the group and
their creative potential
Morris Nitsun
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1996 Morris Nitsun
Extract from Choruses from ‘The Rock’ (1934) by T.S.Eliot
in Collected Poems 1909–1962, © Faber and Faber Ltd,
with permission
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.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-42492-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-73316-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-10210-3 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-10211-1 (pbk)
To Tony, whose belief in me and
my work made this book possible

Contents
Foreword ix
Saul Tuttman
Preface and acknowledgements xii
Prologue xvi
1 Introduction 1
2 Foulkes’ contribution: a critical appreciation 17
3 The concept of the anti-group 42
4 Clinical illustrations of the anti-group 75
5 Determinants of the anti-group I: regression,
survival anxiety, failures of communication,
projective identification, envy 106
6 Determinants of the anti-group II: interpersonal
disturbance, the primal scene, aggression and hatred,
the death instinct 133
7 Technical considerations in dealing with the anti-group 153
8 The role of the conductor 174
9 The transformational potential of the anti-group 197
10 ‘Nippets and Imps’: the transformational process
in a psychotherapy group 216
11 The anti-group in the wider social sphere 232
12 Conclusion: towards an integrative theory of group
analysis 272
References 292
Name index 307
Subject index 311
vii

Foreword
Saul Tuttman
Morris Nitsun’s first paper about the anti-group was published in
Group Analysis in 1991. That report and this new volume examine
anger in group members expressed by the ‘acting out’ of destructive
impulses and affects towards the group. I welcome and applaud this
new appreciation of the role of aggression and hostility within groups
by a British group analyst. In my commentary on Nitsun’s original
paper, I referred to the anti-group as an historical and ideological
breakthrough. In this book, the concept of the anti-group emerges
more fully as an original and important contribution to the overall
field of group psychotherapy.
For many years several American group therapists have been
concerned about the importance of group members venting aggressive
and destructive impulses and affects in group treatment situations. In
England and elsewhere, Kleinian psychoanalysts and group therapists,
including Wilfred Bion, have expressed similar concerns.
I have admired Foulkes and his English group-analytic colleagues
(including James Anthony, Malcolm Pines and Robin Skynner);
nonetheless, as the years have gone by, I have become increasingly
concerned about what appeared to me to be a neglect of the crucial role
of aggression and hostility in the Foulkesian view of the therapeutic
group. Unless we identify, experience and acknowledge the role of
aggression and destructive forces and feelings at work in groups, we
ignore an important part of human relationships and thereby endanger
ourselves and limit our capacity to help ‘work through’ crucial issues.
I greatly value Nitsun’s determination to do just this.
Nitsun offers perhaps the first systematic critique of the work of
S.H.Foulkes, giving due weight to the strengths of the approach
ix