Summary: A systemic guide to the pattern that connects individual psychotherapy, family therapy, group work, teaching, organizational life and large-scale social problems. The authors take their pioneering work from a series of papers on the dynamics of groups (schism, in particular, as the central phenomenon) to a general theory of being prepared for group struggle. The book divides into matters that can be done slowly at a distance and in advance, to matters that are sudden and decisive, and then back to taking stock at a distance.