The Group Analytic Society International was founded in London in 1952 by S. H. Foulkes, Minnie (Jane) Abercrombie and Norbert Elias as a learned society to study and promote the development of Group Analysis in both its clinical and applied aspects. The first regular weekly seminars were given by Foulkes in 1952. Members of the Society come from different countries and from many fields and disciplines, including psychology, sociology, medicine, nursing, social work, counselling, education, industry, architecture, anthropology and theology. [1]
The following individuals were Founder Members: Dr. James Anthony, Dr Patrick De Mare, the Hon. W. H. R. Iliffe and S. H. Foulkes. They were joined from the beginning by Minnie Abercrombie, Dr Norbert Elias and Miss E. T. Marx. The Society, which has charitable status, is a learned society and a non-profit organization. It holds regular scientific meetings and organizes various workshops, including an annual one in January. A triennial European symposium is held at various European locations. An annual S. H. Foulkes lecture for a wider public has been held in London since 1977; the lectures are published in the journal Group Analysis. [2]
After the Second World War, and after the experiments in treating soldiers by group methods at Northfield Hospital near Birmingham, a circle of colleagues interested in furthering their understanding of groups and how to apply group psychotherapy met regularly with Foulkes.
"The small group of friends and interested people who met every week at my house...was in fact the forerunner of the Group Analytic Society. The same group, reinforced by distinguished international visitors, S. R. Slavson being one of them, also functioned as one of the official groups at the International Congress of Mental Health held in London in 1948 when the World Federation of Mental Health was founded."
Foulkes S. H., 1964, Therapeutic Group Analysis, Allen & Unwin
In 1971, leading members of the Society set up the Institute of Group Analysis, which became responsible for training, including an intensive qualifying course that leads to membership of the institute. Training activities now take place at various British centres as well as on the Continent of Europe, with strong informal links with the London Institute.
The Society publishes a journal, Group Analysis , published by SAGE. Foulkes was the first editor, and he continued to devote much energy to it until 1975, when he handed over the editorial role to Patrick de Maré. Under Foulkes and de Maré it remained a very informal publication, with a large correspondence section. It has since developed into a more formal academic publication.
A newsletter, Group Analytic Contexts, is directly descended from "Group Analysis International Panel and Correspondence" (GAIPAC) that was first edited by Foulkes in 1967 in order to establish dialogue between a wide international network. It then became the Bulletin of the Group Analytic Society and was edited by Elizabeth Foulkes, the widow of S. H. Foulkes, after his death. She passed on the editorship to Ronald A. Sandison in 1988. In 1993 Anne Harrow and Sheila Thomson took over the editorship of the society newsletter, now called Group Analytic Contexts. The newsletter provides a forum for shorter and more informal communications between Group Analytic Society members from across the world and is increasingly integrated with the closed e-mail Forum for Society members. Contexts reports on the activities of GAS and the work and opinions of members.
The Society works through a number of sub-committees and provides:
Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind, and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, whose work stemmed partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedia article, he identified the cornerstones of psychoanalysis as "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Freud's colleagues Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung developed offshoots of psychoanalysis which they called individual psychology (Adler) and analytical psychology (Jung), although Freud himself wrote a number of criticisms of them and emphatically denied that they were forms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.
Psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Numerous types of psychotherapy have been designed either for individual adults, families, or children and adolescents. Certain types of psychotherapy are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders; other types have been criticized as pseudoscience.
Wilfred Ruprecht Bion DSO was an influential English psychoanalyst, who became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1962 to 1965.
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S. H. Foulkes was a German-British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He developed a theory of group behaviour that led to his founding of group analysis, a variant of group therapy. He initiated the Group Analytic Society, and the Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) in London. In 1933, owing to his Jewish descent, Foulkes emigrated to England. In 1938, he was granted British citizenship and changed his name to S. H. Foulkes.
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Group analysis is a method of group psychotherapy originated by S. H. Foulkes in the 1940s. Group psychotherapy was pioneered by S. H. Foulkes with his psychoanalytic patients and later with soldiers in the Northfield experiments at Hollymoor Hospital. Group analysis combines psychoanalytic insights with an understanding of social and interpersonal functioning. There is an interest, in group analysis, on the relationship between the individual group member and the rest of the group resulting in a strengthening of both, and a better integration of the individual with his or her community, family and social network.
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Robin Skynner was a psychiatric pioneer and innovator in treating mental illness.
Elwyn James Anthony was a British psychoanalyst and was best known for his work on resilience and invulnerability risk in children, particularly those whose parents had serious mental illnesses. He was one of two founders, along with S. H. Foulkes, of the field of group psychotherapy. A prolific writer, he authored 320 research articles and 18 books, many of which were translated into multiple languages. James Anthony was a training psychoanalyst who studied in London where he began a distinguished career as a child psychotherapist and psychiatrist. He studied child development under Jean Piaget and, after leaving the Maudsley Hospital, occupied the Ittleson Chair of Child Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. He later became Director of Psychotherapy at Chestnut Lodge, where he developed a program of group psychotherapy for adolescent inpatients.
Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP) is a psychotherapeutic approach based on clinical behavior analysis (CBA) that focuses on the therapeutic relationship as a means to maximize client change. Specifically, FAP suggests that in-session contingent responding to client target behaviors leads to significant therapeutic improvements.
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Milan Popović (1924–2012) was a renowned Serbian psychiatrist-psychoanalyst, a full professor of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy.
Minnie Abercrombie, also known as M. L. J. Abercrombie, was a British zoologist, educationalist and psychologist. She was known for her work on invertebrates and her work in the publishing industry, conducted with her husband, Michael Abercrombie. She also contributed to the theory and practice of education through her teaching, research, lecturing and writing. In particular, she carried out pioneer psychological research into the use of groups in learning with medical, architectural and education students, and she shared with diverse audiences in many countries her extensive knowledge and expertise as a teacher who used the methods and principles of group analytic psychotherapy.
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