Person
Earl Hopper
Earl Hopper (1940–2025) was an American-born psychoanalyst, group analyst and sociologist who worked in London. Drawing on Bion, Turquet and Foulkes, he wrote on the social unconscious and on trauma in groups. Beside Bion's three basic assumptions he proposed a fourth, Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification, abbreviated (ba) I:A/M, a defence against the fear of annihilation that follows traumatic experience. In aggregation the members wall themselves off from one another; in massification they fuse. He set it out in full in Traumatic Experience in the Unconscious Life of Groups (2003).
- Born
- 1940
- Died
- 2025
- Known for
- Basic assumption
developed
- Basic assumption 2003 Hopper proposed a fourth basic assumption, Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification ((ba) I:A/M), a defence against the fear of annihilation that follows traumatic experience. He first presented it in the late 1980s and set it out in full in his 2003 book.