The future of the group

Group oppositional and destructive processes have been insufficiently understood and integrated into the fabric of group psychotherapy. To strengthen our field for the future, this area requires further elucidation. The author's concept of the Anti-Group is used as a basis for exploring antagonistic group processes in the clinical setting in parallel to group disruption and threat in the social domain. Further, it is suggested that the legacy of our training organizations is tied to problematic and institutional group processes that tend to be repeated rather than acknowledged and resolved. These gaps in our understanding limit the power of the group because creativity and growth come from the recognition and transformation of destructive impulses.     

Issues in the supervision of group psychotherapy: Countertransference and the group supervisor's agenda

Countertransference issues are of particular importance to the beginning group therapist. This paper describes the role of supervision in helping the beginning group therapist deal with counter-transference issues as they effect the formation of a group and the role that the group leader plays in facilitating therapeutic activity within the group. Particular problem areas and the countertransference they evoke and the role of supervision in working through are described.The author wishes to acknowledge the suggestions and support of Aaron Stein, M.D., and other members of the Division of Group Psychotherapy of the Department of Psychiatry of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.     

Moral mires and the grip of the group: Morality as internalized group norms

I argue that morality is a set of internalized group norms. It is a reliable guide in a complex social world where group status and membership are not guaranteed by birth, but have to be asserted and maintained continuously. Morality is acquired through the process of socialization when children learn in their experience with peers, from observation of adults, and by instructional stories, such as fairy tales. Failure to internalize group norms results in a clinical condition of Psychopathy, or Antisocial Personality Disorder. Research into Antisocial Personality Disorder suggests that likely pathways of group norm internalization are states of arousal associated with social situations.     

Discussions on the large group

At the heart of this article are dialogues with three distinguished large group leaders: Patrick de Mare, Earl Hopper and Lionel Kreeger. They address, with Yvonne Agazarian, some of the major issues in leading large groups: terror and chaos, projective identification, annihilation anxiety, and the impact of size, structure, and boundary management on the potential for change and transformation in the large group. Also discussed are the twin heritage of both psychodynamic and sociological theory and the influence of psychoanalysis, basic assumption theory, information theory, general systems theory, and field theory on the current understanding of large group as the context for therapeutic change. The authors also introduce a theory of living human systems, which views the large group as one system in a hierarchy of isomorphic systems and identifies the subgroup as the fulcrum for change. From this systems-centered perspective, changing the structure and function of communication within subgroups simultaneously changes both the large group and the individual subgroup members.FAGPA is a consulting affiliate of Friends Hospital and maintains a private practice in Philadelphia. Dr. Agazarian has spent the last 30 years developing the theory of living human systems and systems-centered group and individual therapy.Frances B. Carter, M.S.S., is a consulting affiliate of Friends Hospital and maintains a private practice in Philadelphia.     

Engendering authority in the group

In this paper I analyse ways of thinking about authority relations in groups. As a specific example of more general processes I discuss the gendering of power and authority within group processes. Using vignettes from an experiential women's group, I attempt to identify and evaluate available ways of conceiving power relationships between women in groups (sister-sister; mother-daughter; the masquerade, the androgyne, honorary man, the father of whatever sex, and the lesbian). From this the paper calls, first, for a move away from treating gender as the primary organizer of difference in order to address the diverse and intersecting forms of power relations operating within groups and, second, to broaden consideration of women's positions within dyadic and group processes beyond the current (conventionally de-sexualized) maternal metaphor. It is argued that attending in these ways to sexed/gendered relations within groups offers vital resources towards theorizing and exploring the group body, whereby the group is conceived of as composed of embodied minds structured not only around gender but also by relations of class, ‘race’ and sexuality. This approach therefore envisages group psychotherapies as providing psychic surfaces between familial and broader cultural relations in which transformative group relations can be prefigured.     

Marital group metaphors: Significance in the life stages of group development

Metaphorical content is abundant in the therapeutic process and has been noted and utilized in a variety of ways and settings by clinicians in the field. This paper focuses on metaphorical content in a marital therapy group and relates group metaphors to the life stages of group development. The co-authors illustrate the use of metaphors to assess the developmental stage of the group and to assist the therapist(s) in leading the group toward further growth and development. Figures are utilized to display the occurrence of metaphors by group stage, and a case example of a frequently stated group metaphor is offered to illustrate this process.     

From identified patient to identifiable group: the alchemy of the group as a whole

Group-as-a-whole theory is a relational paradigm of some complexity. Despite the growing popularity of this perspective, there is abiding confusion about the essence of group-as-a-whole practice and whether the approach attends sufficiently to members and part processes. The threefold aims of this article are to (a) show how group-centered thinking differs essentially from traditional psychodynamic theory that relies heavily on familial dynamics, interpretation, and transference analysis; (b) present the mind-set and working principles for a generic treatment that specifically utilizes collective forces generated in the context of the group matrix; and (c) compare and contrast the thrust of recent dyadic relational therapies with group therapy generally and the group-as-a-whole approach more particularly. The relationship between the whole (group) and its parts (members and what they bring) is detailed and demonstrated as it appears in the context of fused, affiliated, fragmented, and differentiated groups.     

The history of large group phenomena in relation to group analytic psychotherapy: The story of the median group

This paper presents a history of the large group approach in relation to Foulkesian group analytic psychotherapy, including the nature of this approach in relation to Foulkesian principles. Much of the theory reflects Foulkes's attitude, but there are also clear distinctions made, notably a new stance in our thinking about groups as a result of the increase in size (i.e., a membership of about 20), the introduction of the cultural dimension which this increase entails, and the question of what happens after the resolution of Kleinian, oedipal and familial conflicts has been achieved in psychoanalysis and small groups, no-tably what happens once “exile” has been achieved. The approach presented proposes to handle the frustration and hate that these conflicts engender in the form of negative or antilibidinal energies, and their transformation into psychic energy, through dialogue leading from hate to the establishment of koinonia, or impersonal fellowship, and of microcultural influences which promote rather than inhibit communication. Being neither small nor large, a group of about 20 members has become known as a “median” group.