Abstract
It would be difficult to find anyone who disagrees with the statement that the family is the matrix of the individual. Who would doubt that the family affects our growth and development. Most likely no one. Although it is easy to agree with this generalization, there is a variety of opinions, theories if you will, as to how it works. It is here that it would be difficult to find a consensus. Perhaps, this is how it should be since the complexities of human behavior make it impossible to understand all of it on the basis of one point of view. Each of us perceives and understands psychological functioning on the basis of our own prejudices which, in itself, comes from that matrix which influenced us. The conceptual positon of this presentation developed from two distinctly different, but not necessarily opposing, psychological theories: psychoanalysis and group dynamics. Psychoanalysis has contributed considerable data, although much of it is speculative, to our understanding of the internal process of the individual but it has not been able to adequately cope with the problems of inter-personal, social behavior. Group Dynamics, with its strict experimental orientation, has advanced our knowledge of social interaction but it does not include much data on intrapsychic functioning or child development.
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© 1982 Plenum Press, New York
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Muroff, M. (1982). The Family as the Matrix of the Individual: Group Process in Child Development. In: Pines, M., Rafaelsen, L. (eds) The Individual and the Group. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9239-6_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9239-6_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-9241-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-9239-6
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