An Exploration of the Concept of the Social Unconscious and its Application to Clinical Understanding

In Appreciation of Dennis Brown This article is about the group analytic concept of the Social Unconscious, and is an attempt to grasp some of the challenges that this idea (or collection of ideas) presents, especially to students of group analysis: and perhaps one or two of the possibilities. The mill in my title means firstly the psychoanalytic ‘mill’ located wherever there are two or more people gathered in the service of analysis and secondly my own mental mill working through the learning process, with a passing reference to the class struggles centred on the textile mills in the north of England in the early part of the 19th-century1. What I wish to investigate in particular is the choice made in therapeutic situations, between analysing the unconscious from an individual standpoint, and analysing from a social standpoint, something which has been brought to the fore by the coining of the term ‘social unconscious’.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Trouble at t(he) Mill — Thinking about the Social Unconscious in Therapy and Training

Jones¹

2016

“…Indeed, it is a recent development that clinical articles have applied the concept to clinical work (e.g. Parker, 2014; Punter, 2010). This process has perhaps been enabled by further theory development since Foulkes.…”

Section: Part I—defining the ‘Social Unconscious’mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Unconscious in Action: Linking Theory to Group Work with Young Adults

Geyer¹

2017

“…I do not intend to do a full review of the various ideas about the social unconscious. A recent paper by Val Parker did this admirably (Parker, 2014). In her review, Parker concludes that there is no need for the concept of the social unconscious because the unconscious is always social.…”

Section: The Social Unconsciousmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuroscience and the Social Unconscious

Bacha¹

2017

The social unconscious is an abstract concept which describes a real force, like the concept of gravity. The social unconscious can only be seen by its effects. However, it is also the force that holds everything together from individual internal coherence to the largest social phenomena. It is proposed here that the new knowledge from neuroscience helps us understand the implications of having an unconscious that is also social, although its appearance is individual. Furthermore, although the brain's appearance is structural and balanced, it has been found that brain processes actually operate in dynamic equilibrium, where tiny adjustments provide precarious balance and change is constant.