Paradoxes of Group Life: Understanding Conflict, Paralysis, and Movement in Group Dynamics

Preface

Paradoxes of Group Life is the result of our collaboration on the importance of paradox for understanding group dynamics. We arrived at this topic of mutual interest from very different directions. Berg’s introduction to paradox was firmly grounded in his experience with groups and their struggles with ambivalence, contradiction, paralysis, and movement. He found paradox in the expressions and actions of people in groups and in his own experience in collective situations. For Smith, the importance of paradox was most powerfully presented in a tradition of philosophy and social thought that explored concepts such as framing, negation, ...