IPSO PANEL
An Overview of the Dynamics of Societies
In this presentation, W. Bion’s 1961 article “Group Dynamics”” will be reviewed from the perspective of John Steiner’s concept of psychic retreats. In addition, we aim to provide examples that will help us examine the social phenomena that we deeply experience today through the thought practices presented by these articles. Bion argues that an adult who seeks to connect with the emotional life of societies faces a struggle as immense as that of a baby trying to connect with the mother’s breast. In his article, he deliberately distanced himself from familiar concepts of psychoanalysis and introduced several concepts such as “the basic assumption group, the work group, dependent, pairing and fight-flight groups and valency.” These concepts refer to the infant-breast relationship mentioned at the beginning of the article and the individual’s conflicted psychic birth. John Steiner describes psychic retreat as “a space far removed from the experience of the unexperienced parts of the self, from being seen, from the sight of seeing eyes.” According to him, psychic retreat is a place free from the influence of Klein’s paranoid and depressive processes. It is a protected shortcut. Its foundations are formed by narcissism, which the individual uses as a defense against infantile shame. The presentation will be aiming to discuss the similarities of the intimate and protected structure of the upper identity, as described by Freud, McDougall, and Le Bon, with the concept of psychic retreat.
Cüneyt BİLEN works at the Oda Psychotherapy Center. He received his medical education at Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine. He completed his psychiatry residency at İzmir Atatürk Training and Research Hospital. He continues his psychoanalytic training as a candidate at Psike Istanbul.