Negativity and lies in analytic group therapy: an inquiry into Bion's ideas of K and -K

In this paper a kind of therapeutic failure in psychoanalytic group work, one that is common but frequently overlooked, is described. Essentially this failure is the result of patients who mislead the therapist by lying and by a negative process of thought that works against analytic aims of acquiring understanding and emotional truth. These processes and their effects, as they are manifested by an individual patient in a group and by the therapist, are described. Bion's later theory of K and -K offers a framework for the discussion of the group events.