Mothergroup-as-a-whole formation and systemic boundarying events

Ego-transport mechanisms such as identification, splitting, container/contained, and projective identification are hypothesized to operate in group-as-a-whole formation just as they operate, according to object relations theory, in the separation-individuation phase of human personality development. However, because of the constraints of the Cartesian paradigm of objectivity upon which psychodynamic theory is based, such events can only be seen as either subjective fantasy events or objective physical reality events. As an alternative, a General System Theory-based Paradigm of Autonomy is introduced, which postulates a primary reality status to pairs of autonomous boundarying events such as opening/closing or moving inside/outside. The GST-boundarying model is shown to offer a more fruitful framework for clarifying how such important ego-transport mechanisms work, and for showing ways to apply our understanding of how they work in making interventions to facilitate group-as-a-whole formation.