Analysis of Transference in Gestalt Group Psychotherapy

Abstract

In Gestalt therapy, transference is viewed as a contact boundary disturbance which impairs the patient's ability to accurately perceive the present therapy situation. The boundary disturbances in Gestalt therapy most closely related to the analytic notion of transference are projection, introjection, and confluence. In Gestalt group psychotherapy, group members interfere with the process of need identification and satisfaction by distorting their contact with each other through projecting, introjecting, and being confluent. The Gestalt group therapist uses interventions directed to individuals and to the group to increase participants' awareness of these boundary disturbances and of the present contact opportunities available to them when these disturbances are resolved. In formulating interventions, the leader is mindful of the function of boundary disturbances to the group-as-a-whole as well as to individuals.