Social Psychiatry

By Maxwell Jones. (London: Tavistock Publications, 1952. Pp. xix + 186. 18 s.)

The Changing Culture of a Factory. By Elliott Jaques. (London: Tavistock Publications, 1951. Pp. xvii + 341. 28 s.)

Three Studies in Management. By Jerome F. Scott and R. P. Lynton. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952. Pp. x + 220. 18 s.)

These three books present studies in Group Psychology, dealing with the subject from different angles in accordance with the type composing the group and the planned objective of the undertaking.

In spite of this wide difference, the common factors of the group stand out with their common difficulties. In many respects they illustrate and support the views which Freud has discussed and elaborated in Group Psychology and Analysis of the Ego. There is also unmistakable support for Trotter's concept of the group as a hierarchical arrangement as a biological continuation of the multicellular character of all higher organisms. It would seem that the individual in the group displays more openly the phases through which he has passed in his ontogenetic development, and there are evidences which suggest that his behaviour contains elements of the archaic past.

It is common knowledge that the pre-adolescent child likes to play in company with other children before he is able to participate in group activities, but with the onset of puberty he feels the need to become a member of a group and learns to co-operate in group activities. These children tend to form small groups following the hierarchical pattern. They usually have for their objective the gratification, in some legitimized form, of the sexual curiosity which is reawakened at this time. Secrecy is an outstanding characteristic of these groups, and frequently gives rise to the invention of code communications. There are many group formations organized by adults which children find very attractive.

Among the common factors of the group which are emphasized in these books is the importance