Large-group psychology: racism, societal divisions, narcissistic leaders and who we are now

I was drawn to this book given a longstanding interest in the themes. The bold title felt particularly timely, poignant and relevant given disturbing recent world events. The murder of George Floyd, the ensuing Black Lives Matter movement, the impact of COVID-19 upon large group dynamics, and Brexit. Over the pandemic period I have been faculty for a number of Group Relations Conferences and have seen powerful and painful themes of exclusion or hostility based upon race, class, gender and many other divides increasingly played out in this context. Since agreeing to review this book, war has broken out in Ukraine and the sum of the above events and my lived experience of working as a psychiatrist in the state health system, as well as consulting to both national and international groups in private sectors during this period, have made me even more curious as to how we may understand the underlying dynamics and make sense of who and where we are now. As a British-Asian growing up as a second generation immigrant in the United Kingdom I have always been interested in groups and how they act out collective unconscious phantasies towards the threat of ‘the other’. I enjoyed how Volkan started this book by sharing his own context and story so openly to bring the theoretical content to light and reference any possible blind spots in his own accounts. The book continued with many beautifully and simply described narrative experiences and examples of events that I was easily able to visualise and feel whilst reading the text. This enabled me as a reader to truly place myself in an engaged and learning state of mind. The brief sections under each headline meant the theory could be understood in the context of real-life data; rather than remaining abstract, Simple metaphors such as ‘the tent’ we create as a group helped complex theory to resonate and land. The reader feels guided, hand-held through the steps of Volkan’s thoughts as he gradually describes meanings related to events. Concepts such as propaganda and its origins, the differences between rational actor leaders (who factor in no unconscious process) and the dangers