Green Care: A Conceptual Framework - Frisk i naturen

6.16 Group analytic theory
Group Analytic Theory is a form of group psychotherapy (also known
as group analytic psychotherapy) that has since grown into the major
international school of group-based psychoanalysis. Characteristically, it
uses the concepts of the unconscious and psyche defences in a similar way
to Freud – but stresses the indivisible social nature of the analysis:
“Each individual – itself an artificial, though plausible,
abstraction – is centrally and basically determined, inevitably,
by the world in which he lives, by the community, the group, of
which he forms a part. The old juxtaposition of an inside and
outside world, constitution and environment, individual and
society, phantasy and reality, body and mind and so on, are
untenable. They can at no stage be separated from each other,
except by artificial isolation.” (Foulkes, 1964, p. 10)
This starkly states the implausibility of individualism and importance
of relationships. Foulkes, in a different language but similar spirit to
Jung, describes a phenomenon of group relations in a similar depth to
Jung’s collective unconscious. This is what Foulkes calls the ‘foundation
matrix’ of the group. In it, the network of relationships of group members
is unconsciously (and partly consciously) experienced as a healing and
reparative force:
“The matrix is the hypothetical web of communication and
relationship in a given group. It is the common shared ground
which ultimately determines the meaning and significance
of all events and upon which all communications and
interpretation, verbal and non-verbal, rest.” (Foulkes, 1964,
p. 292)
Once established as a trusting and enabling environment, a wellfunctioning
group can be experienced as a healing, holding and sometimes
transcendental space. A group analytic description of this relates it to the
parallel of infant development and the pre-verbal experience of belonging
and safety (attachment and containment). These experiences necessarily
precede more rational and cognitive functioning, and are not directly
related to the words spoken in groups (Haigh, 1999). They are more
related to the ‘natural rhythms’ of activity and aspects of regularity and
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