Group Analysis and Religion: Is there a Common Ground? Ideas Arising from Paper by Gregory van der Kleij

Abstract

Psychoanalysis, group analysis and religion are paradoxical processes involving people and change. Itzig's principle of asking the horse not the rider is a good starting point in searching for connections between group analysis and religion, for this captures in metaphor some of the purposes of religious practices and the group analyst's work of assisting members of groups to be carried on their journeys by the transcendent or within the psychic envelope of the group matrix (Foulkes, 1973). The horse is symbolic of the life force, of the total Other (Buber, 1933), of the mass of humanness within which we are born, shaped and die, of the whole universe which carries us into the future together. It reminds me of the parabolic story of the Sower, which throws the listener into life and the fear of it, and of Balaam's Ass, who knows what lies ahead, while the man astride, unaware of his ignorance, slowly realizes this and is afraid. We do not know what the next paragraph will be or what will occur tomorrow. As van der Kleij says (this issue p. 27), it takes a daring `soul' to confront such inadequacy and then express it.