This site displays information about the Group Analytic Society, it’s activities, publications, and preoccupations. You will find rich material here: the Newsletter of the Society, Group Analytic Contexts, publishes original articles and is available for download on this site; our journal Group Analysis has a link on the Publications Page; our past and forthcoming events are listed; as are links to other relevant group psychotherapy websites; and there is much more. Please explore and let us know what you think.

At the heart of Group Analysis is the idea that human beings are fundamentally social beings, whose lives are inextricably linked with other people in manifold ways. The source of personal puzzles that are difficult or impossible to resolve, or behaviors or motives that are difficult to understand, which individuals may encounter in their personal lives and at work, are to be found not only in the dynamics of the groupings that they inhabit in the present, but also in the groups in which all of us are rooted, across time and throughout our development. These groupings include the family, friendship groups, schools and so on. On the basis of this S.H Foulkes, the founder of group analysis, reasoned that as one’s difficulties arise in groups, then these difficulties are best explored, understood and changed specifically in a group context. Foulkes, in the 1950s, proposed that there is no such thing as an individual that exists apart from and outside the social (Foulkes, 1948; Foulkes & Anthony, 1957).

In 1971 the Society delegated responsibility for training and qualifications in group analysis to the Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) while the Trust for Group Analysis (TGA), a charitable body, was formed to handle the finances of GAS, the IGA and the Society’s journal. This was dissolved in 1981 and GAS and IGA became registered charities in their own right.

The first regular weekly seminars were given by Foulkes in 1952. Members of the Society come from different countries and from many fields and disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, sociology, medicine, nursing, social work, counselling, education, industry, forensic and prison services, management and organisational consultancy, architecture, anthropology and the clergy. The Society, which has charitable status (Charity Registration Number: 281387) is a learned society and non-profit organization, holds regular scientific meetings and organizes various workshops, including an annual one currently held in the Autumn. A triennial European symposium is held at various European locations. An annual S. H. Foulkes lecture for a wider public has been held in London since 1977 and the lectures are published in the journal of the Society. Past issues of Group Analytic Contexts, the Newsletter of the Society, are available in full from the Publications page of this site.