The group as an object in the cultural field

This paper illuminates the interplay between group and individual processes by exploring members' notions of the group itself. What members hold in common about the "group" is understood as an object in the cultural field, which is a particular kind of transitional phenomenon (Winnicott). The paper connects this notion to Bion's concept of "basic assumptions," and describes members' motivations for creating the "group" as well as its role in the psychotherapy group. The object in the cultural field is then further elaborated in its more general role in the relation between the individual and the group, which leads to a consideration of psychotherapy groups in terms of their value in facilitating living in the social world.     

Trump Cards and Klein Bottles: On the Collective of the Individual

This paper develops a neglected area in psychoanalytic theorizing: namely the collective aspects of individual subjectivity in the one-to-many object relationship. Using group theory allows us to describe this point of articulation between the individual and the group, allowing a more nuanced theoretical development of the social link in psychoanalysis. Subjectivity is inter-subjectivity in a radical way that extends beyond a singular one and singular other to pluralities of differences. We are both particles and waves; our subjectivity has a double provenance. This makes subjectivity inherently dynamic, inherently unstable, inherently dependent on groups of others, just as groups of others depend on the individuals that comprise them.     

Stuttering: Significant Theories and Therapies by Eugene F. Hahn

Video feedback amplifies critical individual and group processes that have implications for a social theory of the self. The judicious use of video replay facilitates the reworking of identity by (1) inciting the self to “become an object to itself,” thereby triggering new self-reflexive loops of awareness; (2) assisting the self to experience the various perspectives that group members hold toward it, thereby altering its own perspective of itself; (3) enabling the group to become an object to itself, thereby galvanizing a sense of identity and meaning; and (4) allowing clients to view and re-view themselves in a wide range of roles, thereby fostering a multidimensional concept of self. Literature on the use of video in groups is reviewed, and a social theory of the self as explicated by George Herbert Mead is summarized.     

Psychoanalyse und Traumatherapie

The author is of the opinion that for patients with combined traumas of commitment and violence a psychoanalytical long-term treatment which takes into consideration the peculiarities of this group of patients will continue to be the therapy of choice. Special ??trauma therapies?? may be useful after acute traumas and in cases in which external conditions exclude psychoanalytical treatment. Depending on the situation of the individual case, though, specific modifications of the technique may be necessary, which possibly include proven specific trauma therapeutic techniques as parameters. Based on the parallelism of the economic aspect of the trauma and the aspect of object relationship, a decisive role in the therapeutic process befits the recognition of the traumatic reality and the working out of traumatic transference, which, however, must not traumatize under any circumstances. This is accompanied by the restitution of a good interior object, which only becomes possible within a frame giving security and support. The establishment and preservation of this frame may also be due to especially required parameters derived from trauma therapies, the psychodynamic significance of which must be analyzed with the individual patient. The author's approach is clarified by two case vignettes in which the theoretical reflections have led to very different technical procedures. The author comes to the conclusion that the psychoanalytical trauma therapy shows how therapeutic concepts aiming at an optimum result must still be tailored to the individual case.     

Kernberg's theories: Some clinical applications

Combined group and individual treatment by the same therapist is recommended for borderline and narcissistic patients. Modified psychoanalytic therapy that systematically focuses on aggressive drive derivatives and differentiates libidinal from aggressive components of self and object representations, and pregenital from genital condensed instinctual aims, is outlined. The group setting allows patients to observe and experience social and interpersonal behavior and indirectly to work through transference resistance and splitting. Innovative techniques focusing on the body, imagery dimensions, and serial role-playing are suggested. The complementary and reciprocal relationship between individual and group treatment focuses on discovery of the authentic self.     

The lasting effects of process‐specific versus stimulus‐specific learning during infancy

The capacity to tell the difference between two faces within an infrequently experienced face group (e.g. other species, other race) declines from 6 to 9 months of age unless infants learn to match these faces with individual‐level names. Similarly, the use of individual‐level labels can also facilitate differentiation of a group of non‐face objects (strollers). This early learning leads to increased neural specialization for previously unfamiliar face or object groups. The current investigation aimed to determine whether early conceptual learning between 6 and 9 months leads to sustained behavioral advantages and neural changes in these same children at 4–6 years of age. Results suggest that relative to a control group of children with no previous training and to children with infant category‐level naming experience, children with early individual‐level training exhibited faster response times to human faces. Further, individual‐level training with a face group – but not an object group – led to more adult‐like neural responses for human faces. These results suggest that early individual‐level learning results in long‐lasting process‐specific effects, which benefit categories that continue to be perceived and recognized at the individual level (e.g. human faces).     

Level and form of psychopathology and the structure of group therapy

Drawing upon concepts derived from ego psychological and object relations psychoanalytic theories of individual development and from a depth group psychology, the present empirical study, a naturalistic field investigation, explored hypothesized relationships between aspects of patients' psychological boundaries and structural features of inpatient therapy groups. More specifically, patients were assessed in terms of their level (i.e., psychotic vs. borderline organization) and form (i.e., anaclitic vs. introjective) of psychopathology. Their perceptions of themselves and of their therapy groups were measured following participation in two kinds of small group treatment designed to differ in terms of degree of internal structuring. Findings, generally supporting the hypotheses, showed the anaclitic borderline patients, in particular, to be most sensitive to structural variations and most adversely affected by an impersonal and highly structured treatment climate. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.     

Editorial

Group dynamics are the elements that make group psychotherapy unique. When applied to the inpatient group, they illuminate various aspects of milieu treatment. Because of this linkage, the therapy group can be used to educate trainees about (1) systems dynamics on the psychiatric unit and their administrative implications, (2) the vicissitudes of the patient's treatment alliance with the hospital staff, and (3) the psychodynamics of severe psychopathology. In the group, individual defensive operations stand out with special clarity. Their expression is fueled by the group's dynamics. Here, internal object relations are reenacted and the defense of projective identification becomes vivid. The focus of this paper is not on the teaching of group psychotherapy itself, but rather on the use of this modality for the general training of future professionals.     

An Analysis of Co-Therapist Interaction in Group Psychotherapy

Practitioners are often faced with the decision about when to recommend individual or group treatment for clients. By reviewing the clinical and the research literature, this article examines the indications and the contraindications for group treatment. Results of the research literature review suggest that group treatment was more effective than individual treatment in 25 percent of the studies. Group treatment was also found to be more efficient than individual treatment in 31 percent of the studies reviewed. However, the research literature did not yield a clear pattern regarding the types of problems most effectively treated in groups. In contrast, the clinical literature does offer some valid and cogent guidelines which are described in the article.     

Assessing threats of targeted group violence: contributions from social psychology.

Recent increases in domestic and international acts of extremist violence perpetrated against American citizens have prompted an increased need for information to help understand and evaluate the threat posed to U.S. targets by extremist groups and their individual members. The purpose of this paper is to (i) suggest the potential relevance of social psychological research on group behavior for understanding and assessing threats of extremist group violence; and, (ii) encourage more systematic research on group violence to further inform assessments of group risk. Approaching the issue from the levels of group behavior, and of individual behavior within a group context, the article summarizes research on key principles of group behavior, and the effects of group membership on individual behavior; proposes specific questions derived from these principles for consideration in evaluating risk for violence by groups, and by individuals influenced by groups; and suggests further research needs.     

Group psychotherapy of the characterologically difficult patient

A broad range of characterologically difficult patients present for treatment in psychotherapy groups. Despite different clinical presentations, including features of the schizoid, borderline, and narcissistic personality disorders, these patients share a common developmental failing. Specifically, these individuals have failed to attain object constancy and the associated stable internalization of tolerably ambivalent representations of the self, and of the other, in relationship with one another. Splitting mechanisms predominate over integrative ones, as primitive defenses are utilized to deal with the individual's powerful needs and fears related to engagement and intimacy. These maladaptive interpersonal styles are clearly illuminated in group therapy, but often to the exclusion of the latent, intrapsychic derivatives of this behavior, with detrimental effects. This paper examines the group therapy of such patients from the perspective of object relations and self psychology theories, models that provide the essential link between the interpersonal and the intrapsychic worlds.     

Object relations and regression in groups.

This article uses a psychoanalytic ego-psychological framework to examine the regression experienced by an individual group member and the defenses mobilized to counter it, focusing in particular on the defensive functions of constituting leadership somewhere in the group. The leader, regarded as an internal object in the member's object world, is hypothesized to be a combination of projected and personified part-objects and at the same time an integrating whole object. Various phenomena of group life are discussed from this viewpoint, notably the lability of the relationship with the leader, the externalization of various endopsychic regulations, and the conditions supporting the defensive utility of the leader for the group member. The foundation for the emergence of social roles and consensual perception of the group and its leadership becomes apparent. A strictly intrapsychic view is maintained throughout.     

Object relations and referential activity in physically abused adolescents

This study compared the object relations and language functions of 15 physically abused and 15 nonabused adolescents. The adolescents provided a 5-minute narrative about their mothers, which was scored for referential activity and object relations. As predicted, the abused adolescents tended to have lower levels of affect tone, indicating more malevolent relationship paradigms. Contrary to what was predicted, however, there were no significant differences between groups on overall measures of referential activity and object relations. Further, the abused adolescents tended to have higher levels of two elements of referential activity (concreteness, imagery), indicating increased verbal ability to express emotional experience. While predicted correlations were found between object relations and referential activity for the nonabused group, the abused group showed higher symbolizing and verbalizing capacity, associated with more malevolent representations of relationships. The findings do not support the view that physically abused adolescents experience developmental lags, instead suggesting that they organize and use emotional and symbolizing processes differently from nonabused adolescents. The implications for treatment are discussed.     

Aktueller Stand der Gruppenpsychotherapieforschung

In view of an increasing importance of group therapies and the intention in healthcare politics to support group treatment, it seems appropriate to provide a review of the current research efforts in this field. In this review, several research traditions are described with a clear focus on the effectiveness of group treatment. Both systematic narrative reviews and recent meta-analyses clearly demonstrate that group treatment of various disorders is equally as effective as individual psychotherapy. Besides outcome research there are other developments in the field, such as the improvement of manualized and focused group therapies even outside cognitive behavioral concepts. Studies related to feedback in groups, specific patient characteristics (especially alexithymia and attachment) as well as the construction of new measures seem to be characteristic for group research during recent years. There is still a need for research related to group dynamics and process aspects of small groups as well as the group leaders and their behavior. In total, research on group psychotherapy has clearly progressed, which justifies the support of this treatment setting.     

Social referencing in dog-owner dyads?

Social referencing is the seeking of information from another individual to form one’s own understanding and guide action. In this study, adult dogs were tested in a social referencing paradigm involving their owner and a potentially scary object. Dogs received either a positive or negative message from the owner. The aim was to evaluate the presence of referential looking to the owner, behavioural regulation based on the owner’s (vocal and facial) emotional message and observational conditioning following the owner’s actions towards the object. Most dogs (83%) looked referentially to the owner after looking at the strange object, thus they appear to seek information about the environment from the human, but little differences were found between dogs in the positive and negative groups as regards behavioural regulation: possible explanations for this are discussed. Finally, a strong effect of observational conditioning was found with dogs in the positive group moving closer to the fan and dogs in the negative group moving away, both mirroring their owner’s behaviour. Results are discussed in relation to studies on human–dog communication, attachment and social learning.     

Psychoanalytic Education,Vol. V. Science and Psychoanalysis Edited by Jules H. Masserman

This article uses a psychoanalytic ego-psychological framework to examine the regression experienced by an individual group member and the defenses mobilized to counter it, focusing in particular on the defensive functions of constituting leadership somewhere in the group. The leader, regarded as an internal object in the member's object world, is hypothesized to be a combination of projected and personified part-objects and at the same time an integrating whole object. Various phenomena of group life are discussed from this viewpoint, notably the lability of the relationship with the leader, the externalization of various endopsychic regulations, and the conditions supporting the defensive utility of the leader for the group member. The foundation for the emergence of social roles and consensual perception of the group and its leadership becomes apparent. A strictly intrapsychic view is maintained throughout.     

The Use of Mirror Image Therapy in Substance Abuse Groups

Mirror image therapy formalizes and structures the mirror phenomenon in group counseling. In this report the author explores the therapeutic technique of assigning an individual who has already undergone substance abuse treatment to counseling groups where addicts are just beginning the treatment process. Suggestions are offered for the use of mirror image therapy in other groups.     

Role or dominance in macaque response to novel objects

Forty-four juvenile rhesus, 30 stumptailed, and 6 pigtailed monkeys were tested individually and in stable quadrads for time to contact slightly and highly novel objects. When peer-group tested, dominant monkeys were the first to contact the slightly novel but not the highly novel objects, unlike preferences found when they were tested individually. A role analysis revealed better contact-order prediction, most groups having their habitual first contactor. When this contactor was overtly punished or covertly trained to avoid the object, group response was altered. The use of the termrole is discussed in detail, concluding that a role involves a particular individual who is expected to interact with others while in certain groups to complete some beneficial function.     

群体共情对群际关系的影响：基于社会冲突解决的视角

摘要：群体共情是指群体成员内化和间接体验另一群体成员的认知和情绪情感的过程。群体共情与个体共情不同,表现在身份感、共情偏好和文化影响的差异等方面。群体共情对群际关系具有促进作用,有助于减少群际冲突,促进群际亲社会行为。共情动机和文化框架转换是分析群体共情对群际关系促进机制的两个视角。未来研究可以探索群体共情与个体共情神经机制的差异,建立群体共情对群际关系影响的综合模型,探索群体共情在群际关系改善中的作用机制。