Students and group-analytic psychotherapy

The practice of group analysis as a form of therapy, and its application to students in higher education, are discussed. A therapist's viewpoint is juxtaposed with that of a participant who gives a personalised account of his feelings as a group member.     

Training in group-analytic psychotherapy in Europe

Group-analytic psychotherapy focuses on the making and maintaining of close, emotionally fulfilling relationships. Its practitioners attempt to fuse an individual and a whole-group perspective, and seek to provide the enabling conditions for freer communication between group members. The group-analytic approach is widely used in the United Kingdom, and many experiential groups on psychotherapy training courses are conducted on group-analytic lines. The Institute of Group Psychotherapy in London recognizes eight one-year courses in England and Scotland specifically oriented to group-analytic theory and methods. These courses provide an introduction to group psychotherapy to over 300 professionals of varied backgrounds every year. There are also two courses in the United Kingdom that provide a full training in group-analysis and group-analytic psychotherapy, and 11 courses on the continent of Europe. The number of courses is growing and there is now a European Group-Analytic Training Network providing formal links between them. Results of a postal survey indicate that few (10%) attenders at a one-year course have a negative response and that many (85%) recommend the course to colleagues. The efficiency and therefore reduced cost of group teaching and the incorporation of a group experience may be contributing factors to the increasing demand for this type of training.This paper is based on a presentation at an Open Session on Training in Group Psychotherapy: The Quest for a Viable Model at the American Group Psychotherapy Association Annual Meeting, Boston, February 1990. This paper represents the author's own views and is not an official statement of the Institute of Group Analysis [London]. However, members and staff of the Institute have made helpful contributions to the author in preparing it. He is especially grateful for the assistance of Mrs. Liesel Hearst (Chairperson, Overseas Training Sub-Committee, Institute of Group Analysis, London), Dr. Keith Hyde (Convenor, Manchester Course in Group Psychotherapy), Fr. Jim Christie (Convenor, Glasgow Course in Group Psychotherapy), and Dr. Vivienne Cohen (Chairperson, Training Committee, Institute of Group Analysis, London, in preparing this paper. The questionnaire study was conducted with the assistance of the Training Section of the North-Western Regional Health Authority.     

Some developmental characteristics of adult psychotherapy groups

This paper highlights some developmental characteristics of adult psychotherapy groups and the relationships among them. It argues that members of a therapy group will experience and have an opportunity to resolve within the group itself normal developmental conflicts of adult life such as learning to establish intimate relationships. In addition, members will reexperience unresolved developmental conflicts of childhood and adolescence that frequently prevent adequate resolution of adult developmental tasks, and have an opportunity to rework them. Lastly, because of the essential isomorphism of therapy groups, members' developmental conflicts will be experienced and dealt with when the group-qua-group is dealing with parallel developmental struggles in its own life.     

Sexual abuse as a theme in group-analytic therapy

The group-analytic approach, which emphasises the individual in a network of group relationships, is described with reference to the subject of sexual abuse in childhood. Three different National Health Service psychotherapy groups run by the author provide contrasting examples of how the theme, originating in an individual participant, was manifested in the dynamics of the group-as-a-whole. The therapeutic significance to the individual and the group is explored.     

A contribution to the understanding of the role of the superego in dreams: Further development of an approach to dreams in analytic group psychotherapy

Seven dreams from patients in three different groups are presented to illustrate the author's ego-psychological approach to dreams in group under varying conditions as well as to emphasize particular concepts regarding the role of the superego in the dream. This paper demonstrates how the author addresses group process, individual functioning and the dream simultaneously within the context of an ongoing therapeutic process. The first section of the paper points out that theoretical contributions towards an understanding of the dream, since its original position of importance, have been almost nonexistent. The author believes the significance of the superego throughout the analytic process as well as in theory has been underestimated.Dr. Edwards is an Associate Supervisor and Faculty Member at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health in the Group Department. She is also a Training and Supervising Analyst at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, a Training Analyst at the Institutes of Religion and Health and the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute, and a Lecturer and Guest Faculty at the New York University Postgraduate Medical School.     

Acting-out: its functions within analytic group psychotherapy and its transformation into dreams

In group processes, acting-out has diverse functions, all of them equally important. It has an intrapsychic, interpersonal, and group dynamic function. Not only may it be understood as a form of resistance, but also in its communicative and reparative potential. The authors investigate the thesis that acting-out also contains the seed for change, thus helping patients divest themselves of pathological behavior. Using a group process as an example, this article shows how boundaries can be drawn between past and present experiences while using the communicative and reparative functions of acting-out. Unconscious psychodynamics can then be transformed from acting-out into dreams.     

Treatment indication in psychotherapy: Some methodological aspects

In this paper it is argued that the general problem of indication, increasingly discussed in the field of psychotherapy in recent years, actually is a pseudoproblem with no solution to be expected. In its objectives and premises it is trongly suggestive of conceptions and ideas of early logical empiricism, to be considered as out-of-date today. The concept of indication is identified as ambiguous, and preliminary remarks aiming at an explication of the concept are made. Finally, the consequences of our arguments for the immediate problem of integration of the different therapeutic approaches are pointed out.