Social Brain and Social Group: how mirroring connects people

A theoretically infinite range of exchanges may take place within the group. This chapter will examine mirroring as one type of exchange group. It will be shown that mirroring, besides being a tool for communication between individuals, also corresponds to the basic function of developing knowledge and connection between people. Recent findings in the field of the neurosciences have shown the presence of ‘mirror neurons’ in the neural system of primates and humans. These neurons make possible exchanges between people, the development of the psyche and the inter-subjective processes that are a basic condition for knowledge acquisition from others, and for development of relational life.

Adam Smith (1759, 1776) wrote that Society is a Mirror for the person, that with ought that mirror the person will never come to know herself. Visual mirroring and acoustic mirroring [resonance] connect people in social networks. Persons are formed as nodes in these networks. Smith’s emphasis on sympathy and mirroring brings economics close to group analysis, where interpersonal relations, mirroring and resonance, are intrinsic to the enterprise translation which Foulkes had emphasized from the start. We are all incomplete persons who seek our wholeness, our validation from the gaze, gestures and verbal responses of others. Economic theory emphasizes factors such as social capital the source of benefit for a community which may be rich or scanty, available to all to benefit from. Through the convergence of these sciences, our wealth of knowledge, our intellectual and social capital is increasing. It is said of social capital that to consume it is to produce it, that social capital does not wear out with use, rather with disuse, that like trust it grows, rather than diminishes with consumption.

Keywords: mirror neurons, group analysis, social capital