The article discusses group dynamics within the small royal party in Shakespeare's King Lear . The work of W. R. Bion and S. H. Foulkes and their followers is used to examine the way Lear's loyal retainers attempt to aid and ‘cure’ the king after his onset of madness. The main focus is on the crucial ‘heath scenes’ (Act 111, Scenes 4 and 6). The importance of dialogic interaction at quite primary levels of awareness is underlined. The paper concludes by indicating how the ‘anti-group’ of Lear's opponents succeeds in destroying both the lost leader and the group attempts to reconsolidate and transform their mutuality, leading to paralysis within England as a public sphere and a corresponding uncertainty of interpretation of the play within the extended group-work of modern literary criticism.