How Does the Analytic Supervisor Teach Group Therapy?

This paper presents a detailed account of the role of the analytic supervisor of group therapy. In addition to overseeing the teaching of clinical skills, the analytically-oriented supervisor monitors the dynamics of the supervisee and the supervisory relationship itself. Unconscious processes may both interfere with, and shed light on what is occurring in the treatment. The author suggests that a collaborative relationship characterized by safety and mutual reflection promotes learning. The distinctions between analytic and nonanalytic supervision of groups are discussed.     

‘That psychotherapy and counselling trainings should be based in universities’

Psychoanalytic institutes, operating as they do normally outside universities, have been criticized as being like religious institutions, with the emphasis on a narrow set of beliefs more than on critical examination of ideas, and with considerable power invested in the trainers and supervisors. Such criticism may also apply to other schools of psychotherapy. While universities have their own difficulties as institutions, including bureaucracy and even similar standardization of theories in particular disciplines, they can also represent a challenging milieu for psychotherapy and counselling education, for accountability in selection, teaching and assessment, for student participation, and for a broader critique of ideas. The difference between education and training is noted and a two-part assessment, academic and practical, is briefly considered.     

What kind of research in psychoanalytic science?1

The kind of science that psychoanalysis is (can be), and the kind of research appropriate to it, qualitative and/or quantitative, have been divisive issues from the very inception of the discipline. I explore in detail the complexity of these issues, definitional and semantic, as well as methodological and substantive. A plea is made for the application of qualitative (idiographic)and quantitative (nomothetic) research methods, each to the extent that is appropriate, separately or in conjunction, across the entire spectrum of research domains in psychoanalysis, empirical, clinical, conceptual, historical, and interdisciplinary.     

Social Work,Psychoanalysis, and Smoke-Filled Rooms

Abstract

This paper describes one social worker's journey from the first days of his social work education to his current experience as a psychoanalyst, and the subsequent transformation of his professional self. The complementary nature of the relationship between social work and psychoanalysis is considered. Through a personal vignette, the author hopes to remind current social work educators about the usefulness of psychoanalytic theory and practice within the context of casework values and principles.     

Succeeding at succession: the myth of Orestes

Abstract: Although the myth of Oedipus seems an inevitable template for understanding succession in psychoanalysis, the myth of Orestes offers a more complex and promising view of the intergenerational transfer of leadership and authority, one that takes into account the entire community, not merely the individual leader. A closer look at the Aeschylus drama suggests three dimensions that need to be taken into account in managing succession: what are the mechanisms enabling the community to participate, what is the role of the unconscious irrational forces inevitably aroused in the process, and what are the wider social and economic issues that need to be addressed? This paper looks at the myth elaborated in the Greek drama, and then applies it to some of the current problems facing contemporary psychoanalytic institutions.     

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.     

The Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology at 25

This issue, redesigned in a new format, marks the beginning of Volume 25, the beginning of the silver anniversary year of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Data were compiled from the first 24 volumes to study changes over time, and Pearson correlations were calculated to determine linear trends in the journal's development The number of articles per volume has doubled, from about 25 to 50. In recent years the first authors of articles were more likely to be located outside the U.S. (up from about 5% to about 25%). Also, in recent years the first authors of articles were less likely to be affiliated with nonmedical school university departments and more likely to be affiliated with medical schools or research institutes. An introduction to this special 25th anniversary issue is provided.