A post by Steve Clemmons of the Washington Note about a conference he’s going to in Vienna on the role of think-tanks in government got me to thinking about theories of groups. Winfred Bion was a Psychoanalyst in England who thought deeply about group processes. His thinking has become important to group therapists of all persuasions. Simplified version: he saw group psychology as a study in human aggression. When a group comes together, it mobilizes a lot of fear and aggression. If the group has a task, the shared task organizes the group and these darker forces don’t cause too much trouble – like in a Committee. But in an undirected group [like a therapy group], it’s just a matter of time before the aggression gets mobilized. Several things can happen. The group can focus on an outside enemy – a men’s group that kvetches about women, or a feminist group taking about men, or worse, the Klan, or a Gang.
If the group leader is effective in blocking the group finding a shared enemy, the aggression gets focused on a group member [scapegoat] or subgroups begin to war with each other. If the group leader can prevent scapegoating or subgrouping, sooner or later, the group leader becomes the target. Again, the group leader, the most powerful force in the group, has to survive. That is usually done by moving from a position of power [group leader] to wise adviser [group therapist]. If a group negotiates these turbulent shoals, it becomes a powerful therapeutic milieu – because it has proven itself to be a safe place. The dark forces have been tamed. If any part of the process goes awry, the group falls apart…
All of that sounds lofty, far-fetched as I read it. But I’ve never seen, run, or supervised a group that didn’t go through all of that. Thus the danger of think-tanks. The Neoconservatives of the A.E.I. and the P.N.A.C. obviously organized around the common enemies of Iraq and Iran. The dark forces prevailed. They did not function as think-tanks, they became hate groups, and we’re living with the consequences. Like therapy groups, think-tanks can be powerful forces for creative change, or incredibly destructive, as in the current examples…
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