Book Review: Sibling Relations and the Horizontal Axis in Theory and Practice: Contemporary Group Analysis, Psychoanalysis and Organizational Consultancy (New International Library of Group Analysis)

Siblings and horizontal relationships have historically been overlooked in both group analysis and psychoanalysis, and this informative book is a welcome addition to the sibling literature. The editors, Smadar Ashuach and Avi Berman have collected a prolific and diverse selection of material from a range of writers from group analytic circles and individual psychotherapy. Altogether there is a sense of a passionate wish to engage with this very important subject. The book is loosely organized into four sections— ‘Sibling Relations’, ‘Sibling Trauma’, ‘The Law of the Mother’ and ‘The Horizontal Axis’, which help to delineate some of the themes studied in the book. The book is largely based on the understanding that sibling relations are governed by the need to overcome a universal trauma— that of losing the mother’s sole attention and these ideas are introduced by Earl Hopper, Juliet Mitchell and the editors in the introductory sections. The first section, ‘Sibling Relations’, opens with a fascinating chapter by Richard Billow. As in his other writings (Billow, 2015) Billow is deeply thoughtful about the impact of his own subjective experience, and here he focuses on his sibling self. His openness and willingness to examine himself through several case examples is refreshing and impressive. In one case, his recognition that he did not share a history with two squabbling group members prompted him to find a way of being different to their parents by standing back and becoming the containing parent they had not had.