Treating the Family Matrix in the Group: The Concept of Nos

Abstract

The classical structural theory of the personality is made up of id, ego and superego. Foulkes took it into group analysis, even though it presents a self-centred person who relates out of self-interest. In the 1960s and 1970s biology demonstrated the social instinct. We are in a position to posit a social part of the personality, which I have called ‘nos’ that develops out of the social instinct, as Freud deduced the ego out of Darwinian self-centred instinct. The new structural theory is made up of id, ego, and nos. We have arrived at a consistent theoretical frame of a genuinely social person. This brings psychoanalysis and group analysis closer to each other, and posits group analysis as the fundamental method for helping people. With the help of nos we can separate the person from the family background, and trace back much of what seems to be a personal problem, to the childhood family.