A ‘complementarist’ approach to the group as matrix and as psychic apparatus

Abstract

This article presents an epistemological reflection on two models of the group: S.H. Foulkes’ matrix model and René Kaës’ less well-known group psychic apparatus model. These two models are viewed as complementary, in the sense of George Devereux’s ‘complementarist’ approach, provided that each is conceived of as constituting a ‘vertex’, as Bion used this term. After showing that the two models are neither in competition nor coextensive, we explore their complementarity. The concepts of the ‘internal group’ and ‘unconscious alliances’ proposed by Kaës provide a way to understand how communication networks emerge and are structured in the matrix. Conversely, the concept of the network of communication can also be thought of as a metaphor for the psychic spaces of the group psychic apparatus. A clinical illustration involving a group supervision session is presented in support of these proposals.

Matrices, internal groups, and the psychic apparatus. Response to article by Clarisse Vollon and Guy Gimenez ‘A “complementarist” approach to the group as matrix and as psychic apparatus’

“…Foulkes's metaphor of the matrix, on the other hand, may be free of these limitations. Vollon and Gimenez (2021) understand it as a theory of intersubjective communication between the group members, but this is not the case. The fact that Foulkes (1964: 292) defines the matrix as 'the hypothetical web of communication and relationship in a given group' seems to endorse their view, derived from their assumption that the group is constructed from the articulation of previously existent individuals.…”

“…There is no attempt to consider and address the power relations between Muriel and the group, the patients and the therapists, the institution, and the French government and culture, or the group members and the supervisor. The authors' analysis centres on the individual intrapsychic dynamics explored by psychoanalysis, and their theoretical understanding of the group is not framed in terms of interpretation of meanings, but of functional causal explanations like 'the group's chain of associations had become saturated, and this situation was maintained by the overstimulation of the communication networks' (Vollon and Gimenez, 2021). This is not to say that their work with the group is not useful or productive, but that it is quite different from what a group analyst would do and think, and that it aims in another direction.…”

Comment on ‘A “complementarist” approach to the group as matrix and as psychic apparatus’ by Clarisse Vollon and Guy Gimenez

“…In my comment on Christine Vollon and Guy Gimenez’ article (Vollon and Gimenez, 2021) I will not so much focus on the most interesting comparison of the group psychic apparatus (GPA) elaborated by René Kaés and the group analytic model of matrix according to Foulkes. Instead I will offer a group analytic reading of Foulkes’ elaboration of the analytic group as a model of the mental apparatus of Freud.…”

“…as the basis of a role-play [which in the third phase is re-played by proxies]. (Vollon and Gimenez, 2021)…”

“…. ) I had to send the others away and keep Younes by himself until he calmed down’ (Vollon and Gimenez, 2021). Asked by the supervisor whether he had any ideas about why this had happened, Paul replied, ‘He’d been told that he was no longer eligible for benefits’.…”