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Discussing Vamik Volkan's book The Need to have Enemies and Allies, the author first discusses the intrapsychic mechanisms which make the acquisition of enemies inevitable in human affairs. Man in his social life needs enemies, allies, friends, lovers, rivals, and heroes. To Volkan's creative forays into international psychopolitical life, reciprocity can accrue between individual and group psychodynamic understanding. While caution is needed in extrapolating intrapsychic mechanisms to group levels, the same pitfalls, of reductionism or too wide an interpretive leap, need to be avoided in individual as in group analysis. Observations of adults in social life situations can be added to direct observations of infants and children and be included in the databank of psychoanalysis. Only 'total composite psychoanalytic theory', containing formulations of object relational and intrapsychic conflicts, can probe the depths of individual and group psychopathology. The roles of the led in giving strength to the leader are emphasized in producing the final psychic results of severe group psychopathology.