Lily Scherlis at n+1:
Group relations was built for wartime, its experimental protocols germinating amid British imperial and military activity. During World War I, Bion had led tank squadrons, learning how groups behaved when enclosed in machines that might explode at any moment. In World War II, charged with selecting cadets to train as officers, Bion observed how individuals behaved in unstructured groups, inventing the prototype of the small study group. Working at British military psychiatric hospitals, he turned his method of passive observation into a treatment: refusing to actively facilitate his therapy groups, he waited quietly, unperturbed by his squirming patients. When they would complain that they weren’t receiving therapy, he would genially offer a hypothesis about how the group was behaving at that moment.
From his observations, Bion theorized that groups under pressure tend to regress to earlier developmental stages. Just as individuals regress into neurosis or psychosis, regressed groups unconsciously gravitate toward one of three counterproductive psychic states Bion called “basic assumptions.”
more here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.