Aspects of aggression in groups characterized by Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification or (ba) I:A/M

Abstract

The study of aggression is essential to understanding traumatized social systems and especially large groups, whose unconscious life is characterized by a fourth basic assumption termed ‘Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification’ or (ba ) ‘I:A/M’. Aggregation and Massification are bi-polar and oscillating social, cultural and political states. Traumatized crustacean, contact-shunning characters tend to personify aggregation, and traumatized amoeboid merger-hungry characters, states of massification, and each type expresses aggression in characteristic ways. Aggression and aggressive feelings are the essence of aggregation, but the development and maintenance of massification depend on the expression of specific forms of aggression. When incohesion prevails, effective leadership is extremely difficult.

Keywords:

• Traumatized groups
• the fourth basic assumption
• Incohesion
• Aggregation/Massification or (ba) I:A/M
• aggression and aggressive feelings
• moral superiority

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Earl Hopper

Earl Hopper 11 Heath Mansions, The Mount, London, NW3 6SN