Riflettendo sulla psicologia dei fenomeni collettivi a partire da Freud

Following a historic path, the article tries to illustrate the role of "the collective in Freud’s theory"; and, although the psychoanalytic theory only came to fully grasp social phenomena after understanding individual dynamics, the overall vision of the relationship between individual and group, appears to be fundamental in Freud’s theory. Several Freudian books have been analyzed; in parallel with the development of the theory of individual psychic processes, a theory of collective psychic phenomena was put together over time; explaining the close interplay between individuals and society - laying the foundations for the future development of group psychoanalytic psychotherapy and for the psychoanalytic study of institutions. A review of several Freudian books, explain how individual and collective psychology cannot simply be seen as a genetic sequence - since they develop simultaneously, "from the very beginning"; they are a product of contemporary evolutionary processes that gain an increasing level of complexity, thanks to their mutual interaction: intrapsychic dynamics create the conditions for a collective bond and the influence of collectivity leads to the emergence of new demands on a psychic level. It is the mind, as conceived by Freud, that is "social"- outright.

Keywords: Collective psychic phenomena, group psychoanalytic psychotherapy, social mind.

Paolo Cruciani, Riflettendo sulla psicologia dei fenomeni collettivi a partire da Freud in "RIVISTA ITALIANA DI GRUPPOANALISI" 1-2/2009, pp 177-199, DOI: 10.3280/RIG2009-001007