Grupo Operativo

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Grupo Operativo , German concept of the operational group , is a technique of group coordination in which the task of the group is the focus of attention. The technique was invented and theorized by the Argentinian psychoanalyst Enrique Pichón-Rivière .

Founding myth

In 1948 Enrique Pichón-Rivière was a psychiatrist in the adolescence department of the Hospital Psiquiatrica de las Mercedes in Buenos Aires. The right-wing peronists organized a strike in order to obtain salary increases and greater professional freedom. Therefore, Pichón was faced with the task of looking after the young people without staff. He organized them into groups, which he gave the task of looking after themselves. He developed his technique in the intensive accompaniment of these groups. What motivated him to develop further was the observation that the young people in the operative groups became "healthier" than under conventional care.

theory

The theory of the Grupo Operativo is based on the basic psychoanalytic assumption that what happens in a group is influenced by unconscious fantasies and desires. This unconscious in the group is called latency , it is the opposite of the manifest , the directly observable. The authors' concrete idea of ​​the unconscious is shaped by Melanie Klein . That means that those layers of the psyche that were shaped in early childhood play an important role. On the one hand, this includes the paranoid-schizoid position, in which the fear of attack, of breaking up into different parts, of eating-and-being-eaten prevails. On the other hand, the depressive position is important, in which the fear of losing an idealized higher authority (mother, father) reigns. As José Bleger (2003) emphasizes, this - as he calls it - syncretic level of the psyche is also the positive precondition for people to be able to empathize with other people and to form a group. In order for a group to be operational, i.e. task-oriented and productive, these threatening fears must be captured and dealt with.

A second basic assumption of the theory has to do with the political and theoretical Marxist background of the Argentine authors. You ask yourself how previously powerless people become subjects who make a difference in society. They see a first condition for this in the formation of groups, which is the only possible relationship of an individual to larger, social institutions . Armando Bauleo in particular also assumes that groups can only produce fruitful insights and become capable of acting when "experience and reason, thinking and passion are linked."

This process, which Bauleo calls “learning to think” in various texts, is to be promoted by the technology of the operational group. A group is ideally accompanied by a coordinator and an observer. The conversation is up to the group itself. During the group session, the coordinator provides interpretations that relate to the group's relationship with its task. This is where the technology of the operational group differs from the technology of group dynamics . The unconscious happening is only interpreted if it has an influence on the work on the task. This means that operative groups are not primarily self-awareness groups in which the individual psyche or the unconscious events in groups per se are at the center.

The observer speaks towards the end of a session. It follows the history of the group, gives interpretations of the relationship between group and coordination and shows emergent people who have not been dealt with.

An Emergent is in the language of Grupo Operativo a sign that "the meaning of a group situation brightens" At such a character can be a very emotive expression, a slip of the tongue, an almost theatrical moment and so on. The individual situation of a participant is intertwined with the latent group events. When dealing with such emergent groups, it should be possible to connect what is manifestly discussed with the emotional experience of the individual and with the unconscious phantasies of the group.

Individual authors combine the conception of the operational group with other traditions of psychoanalytic engagement with groups. The work of Wilfred Bion , the Tavistock Clinic in London and the French institutional analysis are influential .

Areas of application

The Zurich authors present experiences with operational groups as an organizational form in educational institutions and in independent learning groups, in therapeutic groups , in psychosocial counseling , in inpatient psychiatric facilities, in organizational development and in youth work . In the 1980s and 1990s, the theory of the Grupo Operativo had a significant impact on education in sociocultural animation .

See also

Social psychology , psychoanalysis , psychodrama , group analysis

literature

  • Armando Bauleo: ideology, family and group. Texts on the theory and practice of operational group technology . Argument, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-88619-369-1 , ( Edition Philosophy and Social Sciences 12).
  • José Bleger: Le groupe comme institution et le groupe dans les institutions . In: René Kaës: (Ed.): L 'institution et les institutions. Études psychanalytiques . Dunod, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-10-007142-4 , ( Inconscient et Culture ), pp. 47-61.
  • Madeleine Dreyfus, H. Hongler, A. Sidler (eds.): On the theory and practice of the operative group . Psychoanalytisches Seminar, Zürich 1997, ( Psychoanalytisches Seminar Zürich Journal special issue October 1997, ZDB -ID 227802-9 ).
  • Erich Otto Graf, Elisabeth von Salis (ed.): Experiences with groups. Theory, technology and applications of the operational group . Seismo Verlag, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-908239-93-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bauleo, 1988
  2. ↑ Bauleo, 1988. p. 90

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