Cybernetics Academy Odobleja commemorates the name of the Romanian physician, psychologist and cybernetician Stefan Odobleja. Its Vice‐President in France organized the First Seminar on Human Autonomy and Interdependence which was held in June 1988. This paper reviews some of the contributions to the Seminar. It also describes individual and social modes of human behaviour in terms of cybernetics and systems analysis, with a focus on group conflict. Some extracts from a provisional glossary of social cybernetics are appended.