Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface to the paperback edition -- Acknowledgements -- A note to the reader -- Part 1 Elements of a paradigm -- Chapter 1 Introduction and overview -- Origins of the paradigm -- Chapter 2 Towards a paradigm and epistemology for psychoanalytic group psychology -- Conceptual origins and issues -- The linking paradigm -- The centrality of interaction in linking individual and group processes yields a trisystemic model of object relations -- The individual and the group emerge from a primal unity through the creation of a boundary which distinguishes one from the other -- The principle of complementarity accounts for the multi dimensional nature of group relations -- Some implications of Premises I, II, and III for psychoanalysis -- Implications of the Premises for group field theory -- The complementarity paradigm as evidenced in group formation -- Part 2 Object relations and the self: from intrapsychic to interactive constructs -- Chapter 3 Object relations theory -- Kleinian theory -- The paranoid-schizoid position -- The depressive position -- Primitive anxieties in groups: evaluation and critique -- Kleinian theory as a metapyschological point of view -- Object relations and cognitive processes -- The Kleinian view of the Oedipus Complex -- The concept of space in Kleinian theory -- Summary and critique -- The 'British School': Fairbairn, Winnicott, Guntrip, and Balint -- Fairbairn on the drives, the self, and inner objects -- Summary and critique of Fairbairn (and a comparison with Melanie Klein) -- Winnicott and the transitional space and object -- Additional contributions of Winnicott -- Guntrip and Balint: challenging basic beliefs -- Review: the significance of object relations theory for group psychology -- Working principles.

Chapter 4 Ego, self and identification -- Evolving views of the ego and ego boundary -- The ego boundary and group boundary conditions -- Ego identification and internalization -- Structuralization as a developmental process -- The psychology of the self -- Mirroring, the self, and the group -- The self and the ego ideal -- Symbiosis and the separation-individuation process -- Recent related developments -- Early cognitive abilities and object relations -- Bion's theory of thinking -- The mourning process -- The reality principle -- Summary and concluding remarks -- Part 3 Systems theory, developmental psychology, and the group -- Chapter 5 The group as an object relations system and representation -- A systems/developmental framework for groups: overview -- Application of systems theory -- The Group Analytic Grid -- The group as living system -- Internalization and externalization: a living systems model -- Intrapsychic, interactive, and group space: a systems representation -- The spatial representation of the group system -- Group boundaries as a containment process -- Boundary conditions and 'boundarying' in group dynamics. -- The group as object -- Function and development of the group space, boundary, and object -- The evolution of the group object -- Chapter 6 The group analytic grid and the three systems: individual, interaction, group-qua-group -- A systems-developmental grid for group psychology -- Precedents for the group analytic grid -- The grid and the paradigm -- Grid systems -- Grid lines -- Developmental lines and categories -- Grid levels -- The systems of the grid -- The intrapsychic system -- The interactive system -- Some features of group communication and interaction -- Publication -- Synchronicity -- Communication, cognition, and reality testing in groups -- Bion's 'thinking couple' -- The group transitional space and object.

The group-qua-group system -- Review and example: group systems and their relationship -- Chapter 7 Developmental group psychology -- Group developmental levels -- Phenomenology of the six group levels -- Level I: The primordial group -- Level II: The primitive group -- Level III: the transitional group -- Level IV: the Oedipal level -- Level V: the task-oriented group -- Level VI: the self-actualizing group -- Developmental lines -- Exemplification of grid systems, levels, and lines -- Illustration: The paranoid episode of mental health workers -- Part 4 Special topics -- Chapter 8 The 'four-fold way' of group transference -- Chapter 9 Group evolution -- Group development: selective review and critique -- What is the motivation behind group development? -- What changes occur in the group system over the course of time? -- What is the infrastructure of the group at each stage of its development? -- An object relations theory of group development -- Phase 1. Group formation -- Phase 2. Projective identification of a group object -- Phase 3. Boundary differentiation and aggressivized object relations -- Phase 4. Rapprochement revolt -- Phase 5. Cohesive group relations -- Phase 6. Resolution of the Oedipal conflict and the establishment of community -- Phase 7. Termination vs. self perpetuation -- Conclusions -- Chapter 10 On myth, symbol and fantasy formation -- Mythology, potential space and object -- Functions of fantasy and mythology in the three systems -- Mythic themes -- Mythic formulation in the group 'microcosm' -- Myth and symbol -- Myth and the 'translocation of experience' into group roles and structures -- Acting out and the creation of a symbolic group representation: a vignette -- Myth as a primitive state -- Myth and group development -- Regressed -- Individuated -- Mature -- Myth, structure, and boundaries.

Chapter 11 Group psychotherapy: some aspects of object relations, multiple systems, and countertransference -- The group system as a therapeutic tool -- The repeated group wide oscillation in the here-and-now between the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive position -- 2 The maturing of the narcissistic sector of the personality -- 3 The evocation and resolution of pathological interpersonal relations in the group matrix -- 4 The evolution of a transitional space and object in group therapy -- 5 Holding, containing, and mirroring functions -- The role of the psychotherapist(s) -- Countertransference issues in group psychotherapy of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders -- Summary and future directions -- Chapter 12 Self-object differentiation: -- Context and purpose -- Characteristics of the Tavistock Working Conference -- The instrument -- Data analysis -- History of the group -- Interview data -- Discussion -- The role of the consultants -- Implications -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index.