Redefining symbolic authority in contemporary societies: a group-analytic perspective on the transformation of the social bond

Abstract

Contemporary societies are undergoing a profound transformation in the symbolic organization of authority, dependency, and belonging. This paper proposes that the current crisis of authority should be interpreted not merely as political or institutional instability, but as a breakdown of symbolic containment at the level of the social unconscious. Drawing on group-analytic theory, key psychoanalytic perspectives, sociological analyses of civilizing processes, and the concept of the social imaginary, the paper explores how the erosion of symbolic authority destabilizes psychic organization and relational structures, giving rise to disturbances that reverberate through personal, dynamic, and foundational submatrices. Attention is given to the weakening of the paternal function, the “dead father effect,” and the emergence of regressive collective formations such as aggregation and massification. The analysis further examines how digital acceleration and artificial intelligence intensify these dynamics by compressing symbolic delay and technologizing dependency. By integrating Byung Chul Han’s reflections on the disappearance of ritual, the paper shows how the loss of shared forms diminishes containment and fuels messianic longings and permissive forms of authority. It concludes that the crisis of symbolic authority may represent both peril and potential: while it fosters polarization and authoritarian regression, it also opens conditions for reconstituting containment through dialogical, group-based, and reflective forms of authority beyond domination.