ABSTRACT
Linkages between the body of the individual and group dynamics have been part of psychological thinking since the work of Cannon on Voodoo Death (1942) and the work of Selye (1978) on stress. In this mode of understanding the body is related to the group via perception, the hypothalamus, the sympathetic, and parasympathetic nervous systems. Since the human is a social animal whose well-being relies upon positive engagement with a supportive social network, disruptions in this network will activate the well-known stress cycle in the human body. The field of psychoneuroimmunology (Daruna, 2004) elaborates these impacts into the immune system and other subsystems of the human body that regulate physical health. This way of thinking about the relationship of the group to the body of the individual has important implications in terms of the health of the individual and of society where social relationships can be shown to have direct measureable impacts on physical health. In addition the relatively new field of interpersonal neuropsychology (Leiberman, 2013) examines and establishes important connections between physiological processes and interpersonal and social interactions.
