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It has been known for some time that Jungian organizations are as subject to the painful and sometimes destructive vicissitudes of group life as other institutions, if not more so. The splitting and acrimony attendant upon the growth of our professional societies over the last quarter-century can be seen either as a natural development or as an indication of pathological deficiencies. Not a few have suggested that there is a particular negativity about groups among Jungians, stemming from our teacher's powerful suspicion of collectives in general and support of individuation in particular.
For the first time in book form, to my knowledge, we have a study of group process from someone who is both a qualified Jungian analyst committed to the depths of the soul and a trained group consultant fully schooled in such methods as have been devised, for example, by the Tavistock Clinic. Colman has been active in pursuing both directions for many years and here gives the fruit of his experience and understanding. The result is both simple and impressive.
Jung knew from experience how potentially destructive groups can be to the individual. In six chapters (126 pages), accompanied by a succinct foreword from his colleague, Pilar Montero, Colman spiritedly tells us that ‘by exploring the unfolding mythologies that live in groups and intergroups in a social system we can learn to speak a new language, one inclusive of both the individual and the group voice’.
Colman convincingly accomplishes this difficult task by bringing to our awareness what he calls the ‘group archetype’, one that is as solid in theory and experience as the well-known shadow, syzygy, and Self. He shows that the Self is indeed located outside as well as without our heads, and that under the guidance of one acquainted with the depths of the psyche, a group does indeed constellate such a wholeness, with all its warring parts — the ‘vilities’ of alchemy, one is tempted to add, since Colman's description does have t