Learn about the concepts behind our work
While our events employ a range of didactic and experiential learning experiences, the following readings may be of use to you to develop your background understanding of group experiences and the group relations method.
Intro to ICI
The foundations ICI is based upon and what to expect at our conferences
Joseph, J., Williams, B. Lewis, T. (2021)
This article discusses new contributions group relations methodology can provide through the EDW to engage with the intractable and painful aspects of talking about racism in "the here and now".
Lewis, T. Ed. (2026)
Insight for Community Impact (ICI) is a community of people committed to providing no T educational opportunities such as the Exploring Difference Conference or other workshops for individuals to learn about unconscious group dynamics
Carlyle, J., Williams, B. (2025)
Drawing on contemporary progressive psychoanalytic thinking and critical social theory, this article examines some of the orthodoxies and unchallenged assumptions in the theory and practice of systems psychodynamics and its offspring group relations.
Group Relations Resources
Through experiential learning, Group Relations fosters learning about unconscious processes in groups particularly concerning leadership and authority, the formal and informal roles working within groups, and the importance of boundaries.
Green, Z. (2005)
This article provides an introduction to a key system within this tradition of learning, known as the BART system. BART is an acronym for four elements of group analysis: boundaries, authority, role and task.
AK Rice Institute
Since 1977, when it was first published as an article in the University Associates’ Annual Handbook for Group Facilitators, “A Tavistock Primer” has been used as a lay person’s guide to what conferences based on the “Tavistock” model are all about.
Skolnick, M. & Green, Z. (2016)
This chapter explores the dynamics of diversity utilizing the work of Bion and other psychoanalytic thinkers. The Group Relations conference as a laboratory to study the unconscious aspects of these dynamics will be considered.
White, K. (2002)
We take it for granted that psychoanalysis can inform our understanding of the human condition of hatred. But through understanding our experiences of hating and being hated, can we also inform psychoanalytic theory and its application?
Politics & Psychoanalysis
How can psychoanalysis provide new ways of thinking about the current social and political moment?
Laubender, C. (2025)
For decades, psychoanalysis has provided essential concepts and methodologies for critical theory and the humanities and social sciences. But it is also, inseparably, a clinical practice and technique for treatment. In what ways is clinical practice significant for critical thought? What conceptual resources does the clinic hold for us today?
Systems Psychodynamics Thinking
Systems psychodynamics explores the invisible dynamics of the workplace: unconscious processes in groups, organizational anxieties and defenses and the role of boundaries in containing anxieties.
Armstrong, D. (2004)
This chapter offers a provisional account of the significance of emotions, the flow of feeling in thought and action, within organizational settings. The emotional patterning within, whether located in individuals, in groups, or across the whole socio-psychic field, is a conduit of potential intelligence about the organizational object.
Bion, Wilfrid (1961)
The therapy of individuals assembled in groups is usually in the nature of explanation of neurotic trouble, with reassurance; and sometimes it turns mainly on the catharsis of public confession. The therapy of groups is likely to turn on the acquisition of knowledge and experience of the factors which make for a good group spirit.
Khan W. (2001)
Holding environments are interpersonal or group-based relationships that enable self-reliant workers to manage situations that trigger potentially debilitating anxiety. Working from a theoretical framework woven of concepts from developmental and clinical psychology, group dynamics, and organizational behavior, the author describes holding environments, the conditions that facilitate their creation, and the points at which they are vulnerable to failure.
Krantz, J. (2006)
Leaders are sometimes confronted with the need to betray, even if in the service of higher purposes. This article explores the links between leadership, betrayal and adaptation. It focuses primarily on the social and psychological reverberations of betrayal, with particular attention drawn to the impact of betrayal on the leaders themselves.
Krantz, J. & Maltz, M. (1997)
Role is a key component in any organizational change and a critical place for such change to be initiated. This article discusses the concept of organizational role and its complexities. The article offers both a framework for thinking about organizational role and a process for consulting to organizational "role holders."
Long, Susan (2019)
This article argues that to minimise destructivity and increase creativity, organisations need to be aware of unconscious social processes as they are evidenced nowadays. It ends with stressing some areas where organisations can do this
Videos
A series of videos by Tracy Wallach that cover many of the basic concepts behind Group Relations.
Group Relations: Theory and Practice
This video provides a very brief overview of group relations theory and practice. It offers a description of the different elements of a group relations conference and what might be expected.
Group Relations: Theory and Practice
This video explores some of the elements of group relations theory- specifically, Open Systems Theory and BART.
Group Relations: Theory and Practice
This is the third video in the series on the basics of group relations theory. This video focuses on the concept of defense mechanisms.
Group Relations: Theory and Practice
This lecture focuses on the work of Wilfred Bion, and particularly the concept of basic assumptions.
Group Relations: Theory and Practice
This video takes a systems psychodynamic approach to working with conflict in groups, organizations, or other social systems.It All Begins Here