Every therapy group has a dark side: envy between members, attacks on the group itself, silent withdrawal, attempts to sabotage or destroy what the group is trying to build. Morris Nitsun coined a term for this called the “anti-group.” This isn’t ordinary conflict between members – it’s an active force toward destroying the group, threatening whether it survives at all.
S.H. Foulkes, who founded group analysis, acknowledged this existed but only treated it briefly in his own writing. Nitsun built an entire body of work around what Foulkes left unfinished.
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The Anti-Group: Destructive Forces in the Group and their Creative Potential
Morris Nitsun, Routledge, 1996 (Classic Edition 2015)
This is the book that introduced the anti-group as a formal concept. This started as a 1991 paper that won an essay prize at the Institute of Group Analysis. The prize was awarded specifically for work that challenged an aspect of Foulkes’ own theory.
Nitsun’s challenge was that Foulkes underestimated how destructive a group’s internal dynamics could become. The book works through what generates an anti-group and how a group conductor can actually work with it technically. It also examines how “contained destructiveness” can make the group more creative, not just put it at risk.
Best suited to group analysts trained in the Foulkesian tradition, since much of the book’s argument is framed as a direct response to that theory specifically. Worth knowing: American reviewers loved it, calling it a breakthrough and a future classic. UK and European group analysts were more divided, with some pushing back hard.
Beyond the Anti-Group: Survival and Transformation
Morris Nitsun, Routledge, 2015
This book is a direct continuation of the concept above. Nitsun extends the anti-group past the consulting room entirely, into cultural and environmental anxiety and the strain on the NHS as a public institution. A dedicated chapter compares group analysis with cognitive-behavioral therapy directly. Another looks at inner-London group therapy specifically, treating the group itself as a refuge from the pressures of that setting.
The last section is different. Nitsun, also a visual artist, closes the book by looking at films about authority and revolt (Rebel Without a Cause, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) as examples of anti-group material in their own right.
Read this after The Anti-Group above, not instead of it. It assumes you already have a solid understanding of the original concept.
The Group as an Object of Desire: Exploring Sexuality in Group Therapy
Morris Nitsun, Routledge, 2006
The anti-group books above are about destructive potential. This one fills a different gap in Foulkes’ theory entirely: he never once addressed sexual behavior in groups in his writing. Nitsun works through the erotic connection between group members, covering dissociated desire, erotic transference and countertransference, and homosexuality within the group. He is also candid about the real risks involved, including group judgment, overstimulation, and shame.
Recommended for any group therapist who has watched desire or attraction surface between members and had no real framework for what to do with it.