This paper analyzes the concept of group and its manifestations, seeking to contrast the categorial perspectives of both psychoanalysis and sociological theory, which are considered incomplete because of unilateral stylizations that prevent a basic conceptual connection between the two disciplines, with a terminology conceived to be neutral faced with positive and negative alternatives for insertion of the self in the group. To this end, the group, regardless of its size and type, should be initially understood as a social mechanism based on the individual's psychic need or interest, because it helps in his stability and personal development. The article outlines the unified categorial framework resorting to the concept of recognition. In a first step, I briefly present the premise that the individual's dependence on experiences of social recognition explains why the subject individually aspires to membership in different models of social groupings. In a second step, I try to correct the previously introduced idealized image of group, by thematizing the regressive tendencies that often co-determine the experiencing within the group. Finally, I proceed with the idea of progressively withdrawing those idealizations that were based on the initial premise of a harmonic blending of I in we in the group.
Theory of recognition; Social psychology; Social groupings; Individualization; Socialization