Groups and group analysis:: the question of belief

in so far as it is a place where processes for establishing social links can be observed and possibly reworked, the restricted group is also identified with values, and all the more so because it can be seen as an entity in itself, abstracted from the social reality of which it is an element. A rereading of Group psychology and analysis of the ego stresses the connection between the different figures of the group (from the primitive group to the organised group, between the imaginary and action inscribed in society, governed by rational thought), warning us against the risk of confusing them as if it was always a question of one and same object. It also enables us to underline the narrow relations existing between the development of groups and that of the individual psychology that only exists with reference to the group psychology from which it stems. The question of belief and its status is nevertheless relevant to all these questions that notably concern the practices of group analysis, in the context of training, psychotherapy or intervention.