Basic assumption group (B)

As opposed to work group (W).

Compare to Kleinian pre-oedipal

the mechanisms of the basic assumption group must be described in terms of the primary stages described by Klein, i.e. the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive positions. When this is transposed to the therapeutic group, it means that the members of the group will try to ‘cure’ themselves by splitting and projective identification. The analyst should be aware of when he is being ‘used’ in such a group dynamic.

Vermote, Rudi. Reading Bion (New Library of Psychoanalysis Teaching Series) (p. 61). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

In some groups that I have taken, what I have been calling the ‘sophisticated group’ has been spontaneously called the ‘work group’. The name is short, and expresses well an important aspect of the phenomena I wish to describe, so that in future I shall use it instead of ‘sophisticated group’. When a group meets, it meets for a specific task, and in most human activities today co-operation has to be achieved by sophisticated means.

BION, W.R.. Experiences in Groups (p. 98). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

Related

• Bion, W.R. (1961). Experiences in Groups: and Other Papers (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203359075
• Bion W. R. (1952). Group dynamics: a review. The International journal of psycho-analysis, 33(2), 235–247.