Analisi di Gruppo. La Prospettiva Interpersonale di Karen Horney (Group Analysis. The Interpersonal Perspective of Karen Horney), by Diego Garofalo,  EDUP, Roma, 2001,  261 pp.

The idea that the psychological study of human nature must take into account not only the individual but also the social environment in which he lives has been steadily gaining ground in the wake of the socioanthropological and psychoanalytical studies that flourished during the previous century in the Anglo-Saxon milieu, especially in North America. The center of attention has thus shifted from intrapsychic to interpersonal dynamics according to a complex systemic vision that recognizes in the social environment a determining factor for understanding human functioning.

While sociologists focused on the study of the dynamics of large groups and the structures within which they act, psychological studies have concentrated on small groups that reproduce the interactions and the emotional experiences of the primary group, which is the basis of the social and family life of the individual.

Cooley had theorized the existence of the small primary group (the fundamental unit) characterized by intimate face-to-face association and cooperation. From the psychological point of view, the intimacy results in a sort of fusion of individuality within a common whole, so that the shared life experiences and the aims of the group become the aims of the individual. The simplest way to describe this “wholeness” (a term dear to Horney) is to say that it is a “weness”. This implies a reciprocal sympathy and identification that is naturally expressed by the term “we.” The primary groups are such because they bring the individual back to his most primitive and complete experience of social life.

This has led to the perception of the therapeutic potential of the small group, which offers new possibilities for self-understanding through the reciprocal mirroring of its participants, through the construction and recognition of that “we,” which is not simply the sum of its participants but rather a new system that includes them all.

Focusing on the patient-analyst relationship, classical psychoana