Rousseau's Social Contract and the Functional Integrity of the Group-As-A-Whole

Abstract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's social contract theory considered how individuals might be governed as a group without losing their rights as individuals. He speculated about what type of group process would support individual freedom and hypothesized about the formulation of a `general will' to account for the uniformity of belief and action by which a political body charts a common course. Support for the autonomy of individuals and the functional integrity of the group-as-a-whole is also critical to the work of group psychotherapy. This article uses Rousseau's ideas to examine how the group-as-a-whole configures in order to express its general will, what channels of expression are open to members within the body politic, and the nature of the relationship between leaders and followers within the social and therapeutic contract.

Keywords

group-as-a-whole group dynamics group psychotherapy social contract theory therapeutic contract

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