The Social Unconscious Haim Weinberg, PhD

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The Social UnconsciousHaim Weinberg, PhD

• Group Analytic Symposium
• Dublin, Ireland
• August 2008

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Binocular Vision

• 1. The Social Unconscious is the Unconscious of
  the Social system
• Criticism Society is not an organism and has no
  Brain
• 2. The Social Unconscious is part of the
  individual unconscious
• Criticism No such a thing as the SU Each
  individual's unconscious is social

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Definitions

• Foulkes
• " the group-analytic situation, while dealing
  with the unconscious in the Freudian sense,
  brings into operation and perspective a totally
  different area of which the individual is equally
  unaware. One might speak of a social or
  interpersonal unconscious" (1964)

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Analysis of Foulkes definition

• Unclear and non-operational definition, actually
  only points out to its existence

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Definitions (cont.)

• Earl Hopper
• "The concept of the social unconscious refers to
  the existence and constraints of social, cultural
  and communicational arrangements of which people
  are unaware. Unaware, in so far as these
  arrangements are not perceived (not known), and
  if perceived not acknowledged (denied), and if
  acknowledged, not taken as problematic (given),
  and if taken as problematic, not considered with
  an optimal degree of detachment and objectivity"
  (2001)

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Analysis of Hoppers definition

• Unconscious or unawareness?
• The social unconscious resides inside the
  individual
• Unclear what are the arrangements

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Definitions (cont.)

• Farhad Dalal
• It is not the social in the unconscious
• "the social unconscious is a representation of
  the institutionalization of social power
  relations in the structure of the psyche itself.
  In this sense it is a bridge between the social
  and the psychological" (1998)

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Analysis of Dalals definition

• Connects the social with the individual
• Adds an important component social power
  relations
• Too restricted only social power?

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Definitions (cont.)

• Haim Weinberg
• The social unconscious is the co-constructed
  shared unconscious of members of a certain social
  system such as community, society, nation or
  culture. It includes shared anxieties, fantasies,
  defences, myths, and memories. Its building
  bricks are made of chosen traumas and chosen
  glories (2005)

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Analysis of Weinbergs definition

• Integrates the social with the individual
• Builds on a relational approach
• Clarifies what are the components of the social
  unconscious, thus enabling analyzing the SU of a
  specific society

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The Social Unconscious - Misperceptions

• It is not the superego
• It is not just the social in the unconscious
• It is not the collective unconscious (SU is
  specific to a certain society, CU is beyond)
• It is not just hidden cultural norms

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4 Ways in which the Social Unconscious is
Manifested according to Brown
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Assumptions

• What is taken for granted and is natural in
  society
• Example The importance of rules in the American
  Society
• In Israel The promised land

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2. Disavowals

• Disowning knowledge or responsibility for things
  that are unwelcome
• Example Turkey disavows the Armenian Genocide
• In Israel Jewvictim. Its impossible that Jews
  will become victimizers

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3. Social defenses

• What is defended against by projection, denial,
  repression or avoidance
• Example Anti-Semitism Jews (or Israel) are
  responsible for the worlds trouble
• In Israel Avoiding processing the memories of
  Holocaust in the 1950ies.

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4. Structural oppression

• Control of power and information by competing
  interests in society and the international
  community
• Example Gender discrimination maintains social
  power for men
• In Israel Budget distributed unevenly between
  Jews and Arabs

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chosen trauma

• Shared mental representation of a massive trauma
  that the group's ancestors suffered
• When society regresses, its chosen trauma is
  reactivated in order to support the group's
  threatened identity
• Chosen traumas reside in the Social Unconscious,
  maybe even constructing it just as archetypes
  construct the collective unconscious
• In Israel Holocaust as the chosen trauma

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