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).
Ideas
- 2003 developed Basic assumption
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.
Works
- 2003
Working within the traditions of Bion, Turquet, Foulkes and Pines, Hopper sets out his theory of a fourth basic assumption in the unconscious life of groups, Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification, based on the fear of annihilation that stems from traumatic experience, and applies it to difficult patients in group analysis. Foreword by Malcolm Pines; closing critiques by British and American group analysts.