The Power of Group Attachment (The New International Library of Group Analysis)

The Power of Group Attachment provides evidence for the fundamental role that interpersonal and group attachment have played in our survival and evolution as individuals, groups, organisations, and species.

Arturo Ezquerro and María Cañete deliver a creative integration of updated theoretical knowledge, meticulous research and inspiring clinical work; they go beyond the consulting room, and draw on cross-cultural studies, to postulate that there is no such thing as individual or interpersonal attachment without group attachment. Their joint work enhances and brings closer together the fields of group analysis and attachment theory. Compelling narratives from group-analytic psychotherapy, for a broad range of problems (including trauma, suicidality, mood disorder and psychosis), demonstrate effective change from polarisation and hatred (idealising one’s own group and denigrating others') to working through conflict and accepting real differences between members, the hallmark of both therapy and healthy social life.

Original, scholarly, yet personal and accessible, the book is addressed to mental health professionals and managers as well as politicians and educators: it expands the reader’s social and democratic consciousness at this crucial time when our world is descending fast into pathology, global warming, and vicious violence stemming from unresolved personal and collective trauma.

Dr Arturo Ezquerro: London-based consultant psychiatrist, psychoanalytic-psychotherapist, and group analyst; senior assessor and trainer, Institute of Group Analysis; honorary member International Attachment Network, and World Association of International Studies; former Head NHS Medical Psychotherapy Services for Brent; over a hundred publications in six languages, including Encounters with John Bowlby (Routledge).

Dr María Cañete: consultant psychotherapist, psychiatrist, and group analyst; trained at the Tavistock Clinic; senior trainer, Institute of Group Analysis; former director NHS group psychotherapy programmes, University College, St Charles, and Mile End Hospitals, London; published widely in English, German and Spanish, including Group Analysis throughout the Life Cycle (Routledge).