MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 02936mam a22003738a 4500
001 1570661
005 20220608191701.0
008 940216t19941994ctu b 001 0 eng
010 $a 94006774
020 $a0300059582 (alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)30029229
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm30029229
035 $9AKF8313CU
035 $a(NNC)1570661
035 $a1570661
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dPRC$dFUG$dOrLoB$dOrLoB
050 00 $aHM133$b.A45 1994
082 00 $a302.3/4$220
100 1 $aAlford, C. Fred.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84187240
245 10 $aGroup psychology and political theory /$cC. Fred Alford.
260 $aNew Haven, Conn. :$bYale University Press,$c[1994], ©1994.
263 $a9410
300 $axi, 223 pages ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 209-214) and index.
505 0 $aA Note on Sex, Gender, and Grammar -- 1. In the Beginning Was the Group -- 2. The Experience of the Small Group -- 3. Theoretical Perspectives on the Small Group: Acting Out the Missing Leader -- 4. Groups Are the State of Nature -- 5. Tocqueville and the Schizoid Compromise: A Reinterpretation of Contemporary Political Theory in Light of Group Theory -- 6. Leadership -- Epilogue: The Wolini.
520 $aIn this innovative book, C. Fred Alford argues that the group - not the individual - is the most fundamental reality in society and that political theory has overlooked the insights of group psychology and leadership.
520 8 $aBasing his argument on his experience with the Tavistock model of group learning (named for the institute in England where this method of group study originated), Alford asserts that small, unstructured, leaderless groups are the closest thing to the state of nature that political theorists write about.
520 8 $aAccording to Alford, none of the familiar traditions in political theory - including modern state-of-nature theory, liberalism, communitarianism, postmodernism, and feminist theory - makes sense of the group experience. Most contemporary political theorists have erred in starting from the position of the individual and moving to an understanding of the individual's struggle to belong to the group and civil society.
520 8 $aInstead, says Alford, political theorists should realize that the group is the state of nature, and that civil society is the product of the individual's struggle to separate from the group and develop a sense of self. Alford's book, like many of the traditional state-of-nature theories, includes an extended anthropological fable, a story about the state of nature that is intended to illustrate its principles.
650 0 $aSmall groups.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85123590
650 0 $aPolitical psychology.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85104425
852 00 $bleh$hHM133$i.A45 1994