title: Social positions, scripts, and functioning dynamics: phenomenology of the Egyptian social unconscious.
abstract: This article explores the constituents, components, and manifestations of the Egyptian social unconscious. Noting that Bion's group basic assumptions are actually based on Klein's individual psychic positions (Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive; PS-D), and can easily be extrapolated to the social large group, the author assumes that to communities, societies, and cultures the same assumptions may apply to some extent. Moreover, just as groups can move between basic assumption functioning and work functioning, so societies seem to do. Eric Berne's concept of an "individual life script" can also be extended to societies that can have a "social life script." This article is a step toward designing a "social unconscious" map for different countries and cultures that shows where on the PS-D spectrum a certain country is placed, what is a certain culture's "social life script," and how the dynamics of a certain society can be manifested in its people's behavior as either basic assumption or work functioning.
authors.affiliation: Lecturer in Psychiatry and Group Therapist in the Minia University Faculty of Medicine in Minia, Egypt. He is the Vice President of the Egyptian Association for Group Therapies and Processes (EAGT), a member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and an International Associate of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taha
mesh_terms: D004534:Egypt / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011593:Psychology, Social; D012919:Social Behavior; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology