Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

106 Group-Analytic Society International - Contexts
BOOK CORNER
BOOK REVIEW
On Group Analysis and Beyond. Group Analysis as
Meta-Theory, Clinical Social Practice, and Art.
Anastassios Koukis. New International Library of
Group Analysis. London: Karnac Books, 2016
In ‘On Group Analysis and Beyond,’ Koukis introduces his new (meta)
theory for Group Analysis. His thought provoking book is divided into
4 parts. After a reformulation and elaboration of theoretical models,
parts 2 and 3 take us into the consulting room of the group analytic
group and beyond. Case discussions and single case design studies are
provided as evidence for the effectiveness of group analytic groups for
the treatment of neurotic, psychotic, borderline/narcissistic
personality and eating disorders, as well as depression in
schizophrenia. Group Analysis’ relationship with the social
unconscious and music is explored in the final part of this unique book.
Influenced by orthodox Freudian, Kleinian, Bionian, and
Lacanian psychoanalysis, as well as structuralism (Lévi-Strauss),
Kantian philosophy, music and Foulkes, Koukis takes the reader on a
225-page long journey of original ideas and arguments. These are
supplemented by numerous vignettes, case studies and analyses. Over
the duration of his career, he has spotted the gaps in Group Analysis
(GA) and has made it his mission to close these. Hence, he reformulates
group analytic theory, which has been criticised for not
being systematic enough. His modified model consists of an oedipal
triangle, which includes the individual, father and psychoanalysis, and
a circle of groupishness, which captures sociality and GA. Their
interconnectedness and interdependence is explained as follows:
The triangle, consisting of father, mother and children is
already a ‘primitive circle’ (group). Hence, this group (circle)
occupies an essential place within the triangle. Whereas both are
autonomous entities, they are produced through the “inherent
unfolding” of the other. The primacy of libidinal bonds
(psychoanalysis) is superseded by illusion of sociality (GA), which
contains it. Love for society is interwoven with self-hatred and
narcissistic drives. The archaic father/leader and his predominance
over the mother/group is supported. As the oral-sadistic and paranoid-