The analytic therapist in the group 1980: Continuities and discontinuities with Sigmund Freud

Freud's clinical concepts, formulated in the course of psychoanalytic treatment of individual patients, remain viable today in the practice of analytic group therapy. The context has changed. The transition into the group modality adds dimensions and intensifies the existing ones. Crucial, too, is the increased awareness we have of the therapeutic relationship with its power and complexity, as the context for these clinical concepts. The knowledge that each individual is unique and human applies to the therapist as well as to the patient. Comprehension of this permits better understanding of transference and resistance.Paper given in introduction to a Postgraduate Center three-day workshop, The Therapist in the Group, April 1980.