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Conference Presentations

The Individual and the Group

The Twin Tyrannies of Internalism and Individualism

Pages 88-100
Published online: 28 Dec 2017
 
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Individualism and internalism tend to be the norm within almost all schools of psychotherapy, be they humanistic, cognitive, or analytic. While one might expect this of the individual psychotherapies, surprisingly, it is also the norm within many forms of group psychotherapy. To these ways of thinking, the sources of all social phenomena—racism, greed, hate, violence, love, empathy, whatever—are to be found in the internal worlds of individuals. This is born of the belief that social dynamics are driven by, and are expressions of, internal psychological dynamics. Psychotherapy, then, becomes primarily a project of reading clinical phenomena (the manifest) back into the psyche (the latent). To the author, this sort of belief system is both asocial as well as apolitical, which legitimates forms of practice that are also asocial and apolitical. He presents an alternative paradigm that takes power relations and an ethical sensibility to be central to the human condition. He does this by drawing on particular strands within philosophy, psychology, and sociology. This way of thinking leads to a reversal of individualism and the claim that the social is prior to the individual. This, in turn, has crucial consequences for how psychotherapy itself is practiced.

Additional information

Author information

Farhad Dalal

Author Biography
Farhad Dalal, PhD, is a psychotherapist and group analyst in private practice in Devon, England. He is a training group analyst and supervisor for the Institute of Group Analysis, London, and also works with organizations. He is visiting professor at the PhD School, Open University of Holland. Farhad has been studying and writing on the themes of psychotherapy, discrimination, equality, and diversity for over 25 years. He has published three books: Taking the Group Seriously; Race, Colour and the Processes of Racialization; and most recently, Thought Paralysis: The Virtues of Discrimination, which is a constructive critique of the equality movements. Farhad can be reached at 4 Glenarm Terrace, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5PY, United Kingdom; email: . The original version of this article was presented as a keynote address on 30 July 2015 during the International Transactional Analysis Association Conference in Sydney, Australia.