Sibling Relations and the Horizontal Axis in Theory and Practice

Smadar Ashuach is a clinical psychologist, supervisor, training psychoanalyst and group analyst based in Israel. Avi Berman is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, training psychoanalyst and group analyst. He is the founder of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis.

• ForwardEarl Hopper Preface.Juliet MitchellIntroduction.Smadar Ashuach and Avi Berman Sibling relations1.1 Group Encounters at the Boundaries of Developmental EpochsRichard M. Billow 1.2 Siblings and groups. Groups of siblings? Maria-Jose Blanco 1.3 Far away from home: A study of sibling relationships in Thomas Ogden’s novels Shoshi Breiner1.4 A new take on Joseph and his brothers: siblings as a potential rescue from parental destructivenessRobi Friedman 1.5 Transferences in Groups and Organizations. Definitions and clinical valueEinar Gudmundsson 1.6 Otherness in groups: The nursing couple and Oedipal relationsR.D. Hinshelwood1.7 "What happens when you cut a worm?" - Group members as PeersJoanna Skowronska1.8 Mature Adult SiblinghoodSuzi Shoshani and Pnina Rappoport 1.9 Kinship and Sibling Dynamics in Organizational ConsultancyGerhard WilkeSibling trauma2.1 Exclusion on the horizontal axisSmadar Ashuach2.2 The horizontal axis from differen perspectives: The Social Significance of SiblingsProphecy Coles2.3 Processes of Scapegoating and Sibling Rivalry in the Context of the Basic Assumption of Incohesion: Aggregation/MassificationEarl Hopper 2.4 Sibling witnessing in analytic group therapyElla Stolper2.5 Healing traumatic scars: New sibling relationships in therapeutic settingsIvan UrlićThe law of the mother3.1 The Law of the Mother and its expression in group relations conferences and organizationsSmadar Ashuach and Simi Talmi3.2 Discrimination: The dark side of the LawAvi Berman 3.3 Snitches-a rupture in "siblings" relationshipsMartin Mahler and Liat Warhaftig-Aran3.4 "Law of the Mother" – its impact on love and hate between siblings and in societyGila Ofer The Horizontal axis4.1 The Tree and the Rhizome and the Horizontal Axes – Reflections on Individual and Group Therapy following Deleuze and Guattari Avi Berman and Limor Avrahami4.2 Traversing the Axes: The intersection of parental and sibling relations in the film The Return, by Andrey ZvyagintsevRina Dudai4.3 Power relations in psychoanalysis as conditioned by capitalist structures: Felix Guttari’s critique and new horizonsEster Rapoport and Gita Kiper

"This rich and fascinating book deals with various aspects of the Law of the Mother and the growth that results from the Sibling Trauma. The book analyzes the Horizontal Axis as it appears in group analysis, in the Bible, in organizations, in literature and in cinema. Reading this book shows how much society has changed in the days of Foulkes and Antony. It is a refreshing and topical book, boldly researching the weaknesses of hierarchical structures and the strengthening of the structure of social networks." Hanni Biran, Clinical Psychologist, Training Psychoanalyst and Group Analyst; Tel-Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Israeli Institute of Group Analysis "Ashuach and Berman together with their stellar contributors propose an entirely new vector for understanding group and individual process. Embellishing Juliet Mitchell’s Law of the Mother and the centrality of sibling consciousness this book will irrevocably change accepted understandings of patients and clinical process. With examples that range from clinical work to the bible each chapter creates a new and unexpected perspective that collectively foment a deep realignment of clinical thinking and of subjectivity itself. No reader will listen to their patients or view an organization in quite the same way again." Robert Grossmark, Ph.D, ABPP, Teaching Faculty and Clinical Consultant, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy"This important book powers the theme of sibling relationships as fundamental in social relationships. Using the emerging concept of the horizontal axis, it not only offers convincing examples from several perspectives – psychoanalysis, literature, film, organizations - but illuminates the basis of fairness in all human communication." Morris Nitsun, Consultant Psychologist and Group Analyst; Author, The Anti-Group (Routledge)