What can it mean to say that the individual is social through and through

Abstract

This paper explores different ways of thinking about the group-analytic concept of the individual as social through and through. One explanation is based on object relations theory and regards the individual as social because the individual psyche is an ‘internal world’ of representations of social relationships. The paper argues that this represents a Kantian ‘both / and’ way of thinking. Another approach is based on Mead and this suggests that the individual is social trhough and through because individual mind is the same process of bodily action as the social. This represents a dialectical mode of thinking derived from Hegel.