THE GROUP PROCESS.
FROM PSYCHOANALYSIS TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Enrique Pichon-Rivière (1985)
Summary:
TECHNIQUE OF THE OPERATIONAL GROUPS (in collaboration with doctors José Bleger. David Liberman and Edgardo Rolla)
In recent times, social research has gained significant importance due to the diversity of phenomena incorporated into its field of
study, as well as the advancement of its methods and techniques. The results obtained are increasingly precise and detailed,
contributing decisively to the understanding of society and the resolution of urgent problems. Our explicit purpose as social
psychologists in planning and conducting each research is to uncover various types of interactions that hinder the full development
of human life. However, this only represents one aspect of our goals, as we also investigate the factors that promote that
mentioned development.
To operate effectively, the social psychologist requires extensive training in his or her field. In our environment, we are seen in an
ambivalent way: some devalue us while others overvalue our work with equal intensity. This situation generates tensions both
within ourselves and between ourselves and the groups with which we work, since denial and omniscience make up a complex
that is difficult to manage.
In addressing fundamental issues and delving into both individuals and groups, we must avoid both avoidance and be influenced
by the prevailing opinions in our immediate environment. In addition, we must be aware that we are involved, engaged in the
same field that we investigate, and that our actions have an inevitable impact. The possibility of carrying out our work depends to
a large extent on creating a conducive climate, which can be prepared or conditioned by planning techniques, thus transforming
the environment into an ideal space for active research, using methods that Kurt Lewin calls a social laboratory.
Our research on operative groups, as we conceive them today, has its origin in what we call the Rosario Experience, carried out in
1958 under the direction of the Argentine Institute of Social Studies (IADES) and with the collaboration of various faculties such as
Economic Sciences, Statistics, Philosophy with its Department of Psychology, and Medicine, among others.
This social laboratory experience, or community work, was carried out using specific techniques with the aim of applying a
cumulative interdisciplinary didactics, employing methods of action or operational inquiry.
A) We prepare at IADES using group techniques. The experience was planned with an instrumental strategy and operational
practice. We placed posters in the city of Rosario and in places frequented by students to promote the experience.
B) The operation was carried out in several steps:
1. In the main hall of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the general coordinator explained the meaning of the experience and
presented some topics that would later be elaborated in the groups. Professors, students from various disciplines, self-taught,
artists, athletes and the general public attended.
2. In the first session, we form heterogeneous groups of approximately nine members each, selected at random. Each group had
a coordinator and one or two observers. The coordinator facilitated intragroup communication and avoided frontal discussion,
while the observer recorded everything that happened. These sessions lasted four hours and a total of fifteen groups worked.
3. The IADES team met with the general coordinator to monitor and analyse the work carried out so far, summarizing in particular
the work carried out in the groups.
4. At the second session, the same heterogeneous groups met again. Coordinators and observers had analyzed the first session
and faced the group with greater understanding.
1
Made by MatyBuda
, 5. Another meeting of the IADES team with the general coordinator was held to control the second session of the heterogeneous
groups.
6. Dr. Pichon Rivière spoke again before a larger audience in the main hall. On this occasion, the audience functioned as a group
and not just as an audience. The purpose was to bring the material worked on by the groups and create a mirror situation, in which
the members recognized themselves as individuals and as members of the groups.
7. We formed homogeneous groups, with a total of five psychosomatic medicine groups, three psychology groups, one boxers, one
statistics, one painters and one insurance brokers.
8. Third control session of the IADES team with the general coordinator.
9. Last presentation by Dr. Pichon Rivière, with the participation of members of homogeneous and heterogeneous groups.
C) Between this experience and the next one, a secretariat was established at the Institute of Statistics of the Faculty of Economic
Sciences to maintain contact between those who want reports and IADES. During this time, the formation of new groups is
expected. Several are already in operation, including a group of students from Buenos Aires in Rosario and another willing to work
on social surveys. Other groups are focused on specific problems of the Rosario community, with participants from various
disciplines such as medicine, architecture, statistics and engineering, focusing on human relations, industrial and teaching.
The didactics promoted by Pichon-Rivière are interdisciplinary, cumulative, interdepartmental and teaching-oriented.
Interdisciplinary didactics is based on the pre-existing referential scheme in each individual, which acquires unity through group
work. This approach not only develops skills and communicates knowledge, but also educates, engages and instructs more
efficiently, progressing geometrically rather than arithmetically.
They propose the creation of departments where students from different faculties study common subjects, creating interrelations.
This orientation already exists in some foreign universities, promoting a more vocational and synthetic teaching. Some key stages
of its development include the specialization of departments, interdepartmental articulation committees and a coordinator who
links different disciplines.
The experience in Rosario used a social laboratory as a strategy, with group tactics and communication and task techniques.
Experiments in sociology, carried out in the same work team, seek to modify attitudes through a detailed and rational program of
action. Discussion and homework groups, facilitated by a coordinator, promote active and creative communication, studying
problems in depth in order to solve them effectively. Working in heterogeneous groups is essential to maximize task homogeneity
and increase effectiveness.
Group thinking evolves from common thinking to scientific thinking, resolving contradictions and establishing a dynamic continuity.
It is crucial to analyze the ideologies that influence the group, which are emotionally charged systems of ideas that can act as
barriers. The systematic analysis of the contradictions in the group helps to configure a conceptual, referential and dialectical
operational scheme, resolving the contradictions during the task.
Teaching and learning operate within the same framework, forming a functional and operational structure. The investigation of
the methods corresponding to the teaching and learning units is essential. In this process, the act of teaching and learning is
identified with continuous and dialectical inquiry, where they discover, learn and teach each other.
Finally, for Kurt Lewin, group decision problems are fundamental in social and individual psychology, related to motivation and
action, and how group structure affects the individual's willingness to modify or maintain patterns of behavior. The group's decision
is crucial to understand social balances, habits and resistance to change, essential elements for the success of this interdisciplinary
didactics.
CONCLUSIONS
We can summarize the aims and purposes of the operational groups by saying that their activity focuses on mobilizing stereotyped
structures and resolving learning and communication difficulties, generated by the anxiety of change. This anxiety can be
depressive (due to the abandonment of the previous bond) or paranoid (due to the insecurity of the new bond), and if it is intense,
it can shut down the system.
At the beginning, the roles are fixed until effective functional leaderships are configured. The groups, whether vertical, horizontal,
homogeneous or heterogeneous, show a progressive differentiation according to their task. In a therapeutic group, the task is to
resolve the group's anxiety; in one of learning, to facilitate the assimilation of the discipline. The overall purpose is to clarify
anxieties, improve learning and communication, and solve tasks, which coincides with healing and the creation of a new referential
schema.
2
Made by MatyBuda
FROM PSYCHOANALYSIS TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Enrique Pichon-Rivière (1985)
Summary:
TECHNIQUE OF THE OPERATIONAL GROUPS (in collaboration with doctors José Bleger. David Liberman and Edgardo Rolla)
In recent times, social research has gained significant importance due to the diversity of phenomena incorporated into its field of
study, as well as the advancement of its methods and techniques. The results obtained are increasingly precise and detailed,
contributing decisively to the understanding of society and the resolution of urgent problems. Our explicit purpose as social
psychologists in planning and conducting each research is to uncover various types of interactions that hinder the full development
of human life. However, this only represents one aspect of our goals, as we also investigate the factors that promote that
mentioned development.
To operate effectively, the social psychologist requires extensive training in his or her field. In our environment, we are seen in an
ambivalent way: some devalue us while others overvalue our work with equal intensity. This situation generates tensions both
within ourselves and between ourselves and the groups with which we work, since denial and omniscience make up a complex
that is difficult to manage.
In addressing fundamental issues and delving into both individuals and groups, we must avoid both avoidance and be influenced
by the prevailing opinions in our immediate environment. In addition, we must be aware that we are involved, engaged in the
same field that we investigate, and that our actions have an inevitable impact. The possibility of carrying out our work depends to
a large extent on creating a conducive climate, which can be prepared or conditioned by planning techniques, thus transforming
the environment into an ideal space for active research, using methods that Kurt Lewin calls a social laboratory.
Our research on operative groups, as we conceive them today, has its origin in what we call the Rosario Experience, carried out in
1958 under the direction of the Argentine Institute of Social Studies (IADES) and with the collaboration of various faculties such as
Economic Sciences, Statistics, Philosophy with its Department of Psychology, and Medicine, among others.
This social laboratory experience, or community work, was carried out using specific techniques with the aim of applying a
cumulative interdisciplinary didactics, employing methods of action or operational inquiry.
A) We prepare at IADES using group techniques. The experience was planned with an instrumental strategy and operational
practice. We placed posters in the city of Rosario and in places frequented by students to promote the experience.
B) The operation was carried out in several steps:
1. In the main hall of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the general coordinator explained the meaning of the experience and
presented some topics that would later be elaborated in the groups. Professors, students from various disciplines, self-taught,
artists, athletes and the general public attended.
2. In the first session, we form heterogeneous groups of approximately nine members each, selected at random. Each group had
a coordinator and one or two observers. The coordinator facilitated intragroup communication and avoided frontal discussion,
while the observer recorded everything that happened. These sessions lasted four hours and a total of fifteen groups worked.
3. The IADES team met with the general coordinator to monitor and analyse the work carried out so far, summarizing in particular
the work carried out in the groups.
4. At the second session, the same heterogeneous groups met again. Coordinators and observers had analyzed the first session
and faced the group with greater understanding.
1
Made by MatyBuda
, 5. Another meeting of the IADES team with the general coordinator was held to control the second session of the heterogeneous
groups.
6. Dr. Pichon Rivière spoke again before a larger audience in the main hall. On this occasion, the audience functioned as a group
and not just as an audience. The purpose was to bring the material worked on by the groups and create a mirror situation, in which
the members recognized themselves as individuals and as members of the groups.
7. We formed homogeneous groups, with a total of five psychosomatic medicine groups, three psychology groups, one boxers, one
statistics, one painters and one insurance brokers.
8. Third control session of the IADES team with the general coordinator.
9. Last presentation by Dr. Pichon Rivière, with the participation of members of homogeneous and heterogeneous groups.
C) Between this experience and the next one, a secretariat was established at the Institute of Statistics of the Faculty of Economic
Sciences to maintain contact between those who want reports and IADES. During this time, the formation of new groups is
expected. Several are already in operation, including a group of students from Buenos Aires in Rosario and another willing to work
on social surveys. Other groups are focused on specific problems of the Rosario community, with participants from various
disciplines such as medicine, architecture, statistics and engineering, focusing on human relations, industrial and teaching.
The didactics promoted by Pichon-Rivière are interdisciplinary, cumulative, interdepartmental and teaching-oriented.
Interdisciplinary didactics is based on the pre-existing referential scheme in each individual, which acquires unity through group
work. This approach not only develops skills and communicates knowledge, but also educates, engages and instructs more
efficiently, progressing geometrically rather than arithmetically.
They propose the creation of departments where students from different faculties study common subjects, creating interrelations.
This orientation already exists in some foreign universities, promoting a more vocational and synthetic teaching. Some key stages
of its development include the specialization of departments, interdepartmental articulation committees and a coordinator who
links different disciplines.
The experience in Rosario used a social laboratory as a strategy, with group tactics and communication and task techniques.
Experiments in sociology, carried out in the same work team, seek to modify attitudes through a detailed and rational program of
action. Discussion and homework groups, facilitated by a coordinator, promote active and creative communication, studying
problems in depth in order to solve them effectively. Working in heterogeneous groups is essential to maximize task homogeneity
and increase effectiveness.
Group thinking evolves from common thinking to scientific thinking, resolving contradictions and establishing a dynamic continuity.
It is crucial to analyze the ideologies that influence the group, which are emotionally charged systems of ideas that can act as
barriers. The systematic analysis of the contradictions in the group helps to configure a conceptual, referential and dialectical
operational scheme, resolving the contradictions during the task.
Teaching and learning operate within the same framework, forming a functional and operational structure. The investigation of
the methods corresponding to the teaching and learning units is essential. In this process, the act of teaching and learning is
identified with continuous and dialectical inquiry, where they discover, learn and teach each other.
Finally, for Kurt Lewin, group decision problems are fundamental in social and individual psychology, related to motivation and
action, and how group structure affects the individual's willingness to modify or maintain patterns of behavior. The group's decision
is crucial to understand social balances, habits and resistance to change, essential elements for the success of this interdisciplinary
didactics.
CONCLUSIONS
We can summarize the aims and purposes of the operational groups by saying that their activity focuses on mobilizing stereotyped
structures and resolving learning and communication difficulties, generated by the anxiety of change. This anxiety can be
depressive (due to the abandonment of the previous bond) or paranoid (due to the insecurity of the new bond), and if it is intense,
it can shut down the system.
At the beginning, the roles are fixed until effective functional leaderships are configured. The groups, whether vertical, horizontal,
homogeneous or heterogeneous, show a progressive differentiation according to their task. In a therapeutic group, the task is to
resolve the group's anxiety; in one of learning, to facilitate the assimilation of the discipline. The overall purpose is to clarify
anxieties, improve learning and communication, and solve tasks, which coincides with healing and the creation of a new referential
schema.
2
Made by MatyBuda
