In describing the signs of large group regression enumerated by the American Psychoanalytic Association in its 2005 "Terror and Societal Regression Panel, I mentioned:
11) Border Psychology, in which borders become shared psychological skins.
Commenter Clarity asked that I explain what is meant by the phrase. Without getting into too long of an explanation, in our earliest life our skin becomes integrated into our body schema as the demarcation between self and others; our skin is the core of our sense of our Ego Boundaries, ie where we end and another person begins. In pathological states where such Ego Boundaries are porous or uncertain, the regression to a psychological state of fusion with the Other is possible. In large group regression people suffer a mild form of Ego Boundary dissolution and in effect, become part of a large group consciousness. Mob behavior, where individuals are caught up in an experience larger than themselves, where their critical faculties are relaxed, and they behave in unusual ways, often involve such dissolution into the group ego. Essentially, the regressed large group acts as if it is a mob with a mind of its own.
I hope I have not further confused the issue and that this is helpful.
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