Object Relations

Ailean Mills makes the link between group dynamics theory, the unconscious and a World War I tank commander.

Qualitative researchers need to understand the unconscious. Quantitative researchers don’t do it, but an increasing number of social anthropologists, behavioural scientists and clinical psychologists do and are being employed to look at unconscious drivers for clients’ packaging, promotion and advertising – without even using groups to come up with their findings.

This issue revisits the unconscious, looking at Wilfrid Bion – a pioneer of group dynamic theory – and at how the study of groups can provide exceptionally fertile ground for getting under the surface of consumer communication. Since 1948 these theories have been employed extensively for management training, authority and leadership studies but their core understanding, on how being in a group makes us individuals behave, has perhaps been overlooked in its application to consumer psychology and market research.