The Importance of a Comprehensive Clinical Diagnosis for Group Psychotherapy of Borderline and Narcissistic Patients

This article presents a psychoanalytically oriented model of group treatment for female adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Two key treatment, issues—the survivor's struggle to trust her own mind and her tenacious allegiance to an omnipotent, all-bad self-representation—are used to illustrate ways in which the transference/countertransference matrix of the group permits members to enact, identify, and work through central internalized relational configurations. The group therapist's role is to maintain transitionality, a focus on process, and the capacity for play.