Time and revolution Book

A group has three essential forces, which Berne labeled as the major external group process, the major internal group process, and the minor internal group process. The major external group process is what is often evident in times of war or pandemics(my country against COVID-19). The major internal group process is what foments revolutions: internal discord between the aristocracy and the proletariat, for example, threaten the internal cohesion of a country. Finally, the minor internal process is what manifests in intrigues: gossip against fellow workers is a great example. The minor internal process can still be used to destabilize countries: this is what was beautifully illustrated in The Rise of Phoenixes. Intrigues properly utilized can snowball into a major internal group process.

A group consists of three leaders: the responsible, the effective, and the psychological leader. The responsible leader is the group's front man; the effective leader may be the one who pulls the strings. The psychological leader, on the other hand, is the man or woman people rally around. While they may sometimes be only one person, most of the time two or three people perform its roles. The better the leaders are, the stronger the group becomes, and the longer it survives. In a group, "each of the members resigns part of his individual proclivities in favor of cohesion, so that the group can become an effective force." (p. 130)

A group is regulated by its Constitution, laws, and culture. For a group to survive, it must fulfill five provisions: existential (reason for its existence), teleologic (goal), structural, regulatory, and autotelic (legislative). The best leaders are often willing to kill to defend the group's constitution. These leaders are known as primal leaders. These leaders establish customs within the group that become traditions after his death (Lincoln abolished slavery, and America stayed that way).

Just like the individual has the Parent-Adult-Child component, the culture within a group also reflects this dynamic. However, instead of Parent, it becomes group etiquette - or the rules that individuals within the group follow; instead of Adult, it becomes technical culture, or how the group manipulates itself around reality; instead of Child, it becomes group character.

People wish to belong in groups because of their needs: a biologic need for stimulation; a psychological need for time-structuring; a social need for intimacy; a nostalgic need for patterning transactions; and, a provisional set of expectations based on past experience. (p. 221) However, the ultimate goal of human relationships, intimacy, is "not suited in public situations." (p. 217)

Intimacy is threatening for various reasons, partly because it requires independent structuring and personal responsibility; also, as already noted, it is not suited in public situations. Hence, most people in groups settle for whatever satisfactions they can get from games, and the more timid ones may not go beyond pastimes. (p. 217)

This quote is particularly enlightening to me because I have always eschewed being in a large group. I enjoy sincere friendships with a few people, and most of these have been founded on a tete-a-tete. Besides, my anancasm is intellectual competence, which is also a private activity. That said, most of the reasons why groups are joined by people do not apply to me: I often can fulfill my psychological need for time-structuring, and have found myself to be productive in spite of the pandemic; my biological need for stimulation is addressed by my running, which is a private activity; and, my social need for intimacy is fulfilled in a genuine conversation between me and the person I care about. This said, I have little reason to participate in most groups.

In the few groups I do participate in, I tend to serve as a responsible leader or a psychological leader. As I am an ER physician, I have the final say when it comes to attending to cases, and I think I have fulfilled that role honorably. I am in concordance with most of my staff, and we function well as a unit. I do not fulfill the role of a euhemerus, or primal leader, and I have no wish to become one.

Although this book was insightful to me, the cases at the end of the book are no longer as useful nowadays.