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Group as a Whole: Learning for Leadership, Authority and Organisation

Author(s) : Lionel F. Stapley

Reviews and Endorsements

Lionel Stapley has written an illuminating book reflecting on his rich experience over the years of working with, and consulting with, groups and organisations. His book is as practical as it is analytic. Freud and Bion originally observed that group membership creates individual and group regression. What is described as a metaphorical return to primitive, infantile-like, group dynamics, which along with anxiety and ambivalence, produces not only a return to the primary group but revisiting earlier relationships, particularly a regression to the object of the mother. In sum, in consultation to groups and organisations, Stapley highlights focusing on the level of group itself, the idea of the “group as a whole”.
Michael A. Diamond, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri; distinguished member, International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO)

We are living in times of seemingly intractable conflict between and within nation states. Group relations in this context are marked by tribalism, polarisation, identity politics, scapegoating, and contempt for the Other. Learning about group relations and gaining deep understanding of the psychodynamics provoking extremist behaviours is as relevant now as when first initiated by the Tavistock Institute over seventy-five years ago. Lionel Stapley’s “group as a whole” four-day experiential workshop is an exemplary model for group relations learning. The book is a comprehensive manual on the theory and practice of the author’s IGO consulting model of group relations conferences. It is a welcome addition to the field and particularly useful for consultants wanting to develop their knowledge of consulting to experiential group relations events.
Jinette de Gooijer, PhD, socioanalyst, past president, Group Relations Australia

The work is absolutely impressive. It covers the entire field of conscious and unconscious processes, which includes many useful descriptions of relevant dynamics. An admirable work which covers every possible manifestation of understanding institutions.
Anton Obholzer, emeritus CEO, Tavistock and Portman clinics; organisational consultant, INSEAD and internationally

I compliment Stapley for producing an illuminating syllabus for prospective staff, as a curriculum to accompany their process of exploring what their assumption of the role requires, intellectually and emotionally. [...] Stapley’s achievement is commendable for his demonstrable sense of accountability vis-à-vis his peers, and his willingness to share ideas, knowledge, and experiences, even with those in environments governed by foreign value sets, to whom he generously introduces his model for a GRC.
Gerard van Reekum, Organisational and Social Dynamics

Stapley’s slim volume provides a fascinating account of a psychodynamic approach to the analysis of groups and group relations… All therapists and groupwork practitioners with psychodynamic learnings and those working with teams and organisations will find rich learning here.
John Marsden MBACP (Snr Accred), senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy, Therapy Today, March 2025, Volume. 36:2