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12. Maternal Merging in Society and the family The Group Mind Freud (1921 ) totally ignored th e importance o f women i n his writing o n group psychology , emphasizin g attachmen t t o a powerfu l mal e leader . Therefore, i n thi s chapte r w e will explor e the importanc e o f the infant' s merged relationship with the preoedipal mother as the prototype for social and family organization . The formatio n o f the famil y grou p enhance s th e chance s fo r a child's physical survival . I n mos t primitiv e societies , gende r role s i n th e famil y were strictl y separated , rigidl y defined , an d encompassing . Thes e role s were originall y determine d b y biologica l differences . Sinc e women gav e birth and lactated, child rearing was generally assigned to them. Since men were usuall y physicall y stronger , the y provide d foo d an d protection . I n addition, b y joining int o a collective group, not onl y could thei r mutua l protection b e greater , bu t the y coul d impos e thei r will o n others . Th e natural formatio n o f thi s collectiv e grou p reste d o n th e basi s o f famil y kinship, resulting in the evolution o f tribal societies . Many theorists suggest that in a tribal society, each member's autonomy and individualit y wer e submerge d fo r grou p survival . Member s als o merged symbolically , a s i f t o for m on e physica l body . Th e leade r wa s literally th e head , an d th e follower s wer e th e arms , legs , an d bod y tha t executed the leader's will. Deviations from the group roles and norms were severely punished, seen not only as a personal threat to the leader's power 113 ii4 Freud and Feminine Psychology but t o th e physica l surviva l o f the entir e group . (I n sociology , thi s typ e of authoritarian system was termed ^gemeinschaft society.) The individual's role within the group replace d his or her uniqueness, but the group pro vided socia l suppor t an d securit y fo r all . These group s functione d a s i f they wer e merge d int o a singl e anthropomorphi c entit y wit h a solitar y group mind. Thi s phenomeno n ha s bee n studie d b y philosophers , psy chologists , an d sociologist s suc h a s Hobbes , Spencer , Hegel , Marx , Wundt, Durkheim , Weber , LeBon , an d Freud . In Egyp t durin g th e first century, th e philosophe r Phil o believe d tha t the grou p min d phenomeno n wa s magical . I n Spai n durin g th e twelft h century, th e famou s physicia n an d philosophe r Mose s Maimonide s equated all group leaders with spellbinders and dreamers who could exert their powe r an d contro l ove r a group . Freu d (1921 ) als o compare d th e group leader to a powerful male hypnotist; he felt that the group members had a libidinal attachment to the leader. In all these theories, the basis for group functioning reste d on a masculine leader, who possessed some form of unusual power ove r others . The British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion disagreed with many of Freud's formulations concernin g grou p functionin g (Bio n 1961) . Bio n agree d with th e psychologist s LeBo n an d McDougall , wh o explaine d tha t th e group min d i s du e t o a n inherite d her d instinct , a notio n rejecte d b y Freud. Bion observed normal groups of individuals at the Tavistock Clinic in Londo n afte r Worl d Wa r II . H e note d tha t whe n individual s wer e placed int o a grou p wit h a leade r wh o wa s emotionall y abstinent , th e members experienced feelings of helplessness. To cope with what Kleinians called impending "psychotic anxiety" (what others term "annihilation anxiety "), all the members temporarily regressed, lost their individuality, an d used the defense o...

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