Operative Groups: The Latin-American Approach to Group Analysis (International Library of Group Analysis, 24)

Group therapy and other dynamic approaches to the co-ordination of groups may focus either on the individual psychodynamics or on the group as a whole. In Britain, group analysis developed as a group-centred approach of both therapeutic and non-therapeutic groups, from the foundational work of S.H. Foulkes. But there has been another, independent, Latin-American school of group analysis, which originated in Argentina as a result of the work and teachings of the Swiss-born Argentinian psychoanalyst Enrique Pichon-Riviere. This is a thorough introduction to operative groups. It guides the reader through the ideas of Pichon-Riviere, who conceived operative groups as a whole way of thinking and acting in groups, and then shows how the British and the Latin-American schools of group analysis coincide and inter-relate, shedding light on the theory behind both and including useful case material of various kinds of groups to illustrate such theory.