Group Analysts Research Articles

Working on the future of group analysis — the future of the past

If we observe group analysis as a figure in the social field, many changes in society undoubtedly shape it both as a theory, a therapeutic method and a form of training. That is how it was and will be. This shaping is slow, discreet but an active process of constant acculturation of both group analysis and group analysts. Wars, migrations, emigrations, cultural diversities create a need for a more flexible and culturally attuned profile of group analysts, who are not only capable of working with diversity, but also within diversity—actively reflecting on their own identity and experience even under the pressure and tormented by problems of preserving their own tent canvas. This is one possible future for group analysis, in the ever-increasing intertwining and cross-fertilization between human sciences such as sociology, history, anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, communicology, art, with no fear of diversity that threatens identity, with openness of new generation of group analysts to heteroglossia.

Report of a small feasibility study involving group analysts and groupwork practitioners in facilitating self-practice/self-reflection groups in the training of cognitive behaviour therapists

This article provides a narrative account of a small research study run with a grant from the Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) Legacy Fund. It discusses the challenges and opportunities of engaging in research involving interdisciplinary collaboration between trainee cognitive behaviour therapists working in the NHS and group analysts/groupwork practitioners. It makes the case for building on the results of this study by developing a protocol for a pre-post pilot study using a mixed methods approach to explore whether IGA-led groupwork in CBT training has any effect on patient outcomes and service key performance indicators.

Business Group Analysts

We exploit the rich data of business groups in China and identify sell-side analysts following multiple listed firms within a business group (BG analysts). For a group firm, we find that BG analysts issue more accurate forecasts than non-BG analysts. Such an effect is more pronounced when the focal firm shares stronger economic links with, and when its covering analysts have greater information demand for, its group peers. Further analyses suggest evidence of intragroup information flows. Around group peers’ annual earnings announcements, BG analysts are more likely than non-BG analysts to revise their forecasts for the focal firm along the same direction as group peers’ earnings surprises. Confined to analysts’ coverage initiations for a group firm, those who have covered the focal firm’s group peers prior to the coverage initiation show superior forecasting performance during the initiation year. By adopting the unique perspective of business groups, i.e., a prevalent organizational structure, our study shows that information commonalities within a business group shape analyst behaviour.

A narrative review of group analytic literature on clinical supervision: Seeking coherence and correspondence

A systematic narrative literature review was carried out with the aim of identifying key themes in the group analytic literature on clinical supervision, and to inform the development of theory, practice and research in this area. The systematic literature search identified 103 relevant publications, nearly all involving case vignettes of supervisory practice and theoretical reflections on group analytic supervision, with only a handful of published research studies in this field to date. Four core themes were identified in this literature, indicating what group analysts have considered to be the key functions of clinical supervision—one primary theme: Providing critical holding and containment, and three other themes radiating out from this primary concern: Supporting capacity to bear and process emotionally, sustaining ability to think deeply and widely, and counteracting isolation and enabling creative exchange. The nature of each of these themes is elaborated, and this material is critically considered in terms of the group analytic contribution to the clinical supervision field (considering theoretical coherence) and its relationship with the wider literature on supervision (considering correspondence with other disciplines). In conclusion, some implications and recommendations are outlined.

Learning about humour

In groups, we encounter the entire spectrum of humour from benign jokes to hostile sarcasm. Since humour has been neglected by group analysts, this article expands the limited literature in group analysis on humour. Several theories of humour are introduced. I contend that group analysis should research humour in order to develop a group analytic theory of humour. Jokes and clinical examples are interwoven to illustrate what conductors must consider before employing humour. Reactions to and use of witticism are described. Beneficial humour techniques (therapeutic paradox, paradoxical intentions) and gallows humour are outlined. Gallows humour has therapeutic benefits for depressed, traumatized, suicidal and dying people. Vignettes are provided that demonstrate how parallel process offers insight into humour. I suggest that supervision and workshops are vital if group analysts wish to use humour. Some techniques are described, which could be taught.

Business Group Analysts

Business Group Analysts

Beziehungen mit Autoritäten in der Gruppenanalyse

This paper deals with relationships to authority and with authority-related patterns of relational disorders in group analysis, and thus at the same time with the topic of group leadership and authority and with a promising outline of a group analytic theory of disorders. With this theory of disorders as a focus, two experienced group analysts from different backgrounds look from their respective perspectives at group therapy under authoritarian social conditions and at contemporary group analysis. Social conditions influence the framework of groups and dynamic administration. However, different authority-related relational disturbances in group processes also emerge.

When foundation matrices move—challenges for a group analysis of our time

This lecture explores the recent and further to be expected radical changes in our nowadays world, asking for the implied consequences—for every organization/community on all levels, for every person—as well as for us as group analysts. To understand the underlying processes reference is made to the work of Karl Mannheim and Foulkes’ concept of the foundation matrix. The emotional strain of reworking its basic dimensions—as group boundaries, gender relations, relations between the generations, their power implications, which entrench the whole social structure and hence history—are carefully outlined.

How (non)discriminatory are the Institute of Group Analysis and group analysis? An institutional ethnography study

The current political, social and economic landscape in psychotherapy is permeated by neoliberalism and requirements for diversity and equality. Nevertheless, racism occurred in the Institute of Group Analysis (IGA). Using Institutional Ethnography, this study examined whether non-discrimination of clients, students and group analysts is nowadays a lived actuality. Unfortunately, a disjuncture between claims of non-discrimination and lived experiences was identified. Unconscious prejudices, hidden discrimination and neoliberalist affiliations perpetuate white discriminatory practices. Marginalized clients, students and group analysts remain outsiders, even though the PPP Working Group has made some positive changes. I suggested that documents should be revised, contemporary theory be included in diversity seminars and diversity frameworks be researched.

The Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project.

The Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project.

First do no harm?

Group analysts seldom write about the risk of harming their patients. Yet it is now widely recognized that all psychotherapies come with a small risk of harm and this risk has remained since it was first identified in the 1970s. In the wider group psychotherapy literature, risk of harm has been linked to the poor management of conflict and scapegoating, the misuse of interpretation, narcissistic leadership and unsuitability or lack of preparation of patients. Group analytic writers have examined each of these areas to varying degrees but not from the perspective of harm to the patient. This article highlights this ‘blind spot’ within the profession and signals the need for action.

Working with the trauma of racism in groups in a time of white supremacy — erasure, psychic ghettoization or bearing witness

This article addresses the complex issues when working with group members who have been traumatized by institutional and inter-generational racism in the context of white supremacy. The article engages with how a group analytic understanding can assist clinicians to engage with group members who have experienced racial trauma and structural oppression when these dynamics are inevitably generated in psychotherapy groups. I discuss the concepts of ‘erasure’, ‘bearing witness’ and also introduce the concept of ‘psychic ghettoization’, which can provide the conductor with some conceptual tools to manage the complex issue of racial trauma. I argue that there is now more than ever a need to remain relevant to the diverse and often marginalized communities we serve. To do this requires group analysts and indeed all clinicians to urgently scrutinize and develop theories and techniques for working with racism in our practices and clinics. A lack of intervention equates to a by-standing and a complicit collusion with racism which risks a re-traumatizing dynamic being paralleled in our clinical work with group members from marginalized communities.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, networks and introjection

Group analysts have not much turned their attention to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. There is only one paragraph on it in this journal—and in fact it was in the newsletter accompanying it (Leal, 2013)—alongside a few incidental references. In part, this may reflect a general distrust of diagnostic labels, particularly those relating to disturbed development, defined medically. It may also reflect the recent lack of attention towards group-analytic formulations of specific psychopathological constructs. Instead, group-analytic writers have recently been particularly interested in the social unconscious and a more detailed analysis of issues of power and positionality. While this is necessary, and no analysis of people social to their core is competent without it, there is also space for a detailed consideration of psychopathology. To advance this, I attempt a group-analytic understanding of the concept of ADHD. I do this because I shall argue it is a clear example of the balance between projection and introjection, and that an adequate analysis of disturbance in a network must account for both sets of processes. I shall also do it to illustrate that such a group-analytic formulation should be possible, and to encourage further group-analytic formulations of other specific psychopathological constructs. Initially, I shall describe the development and utility of the concept, tying it to neurobiological findings, particularly those related to the Default Mode Network. Next, I shall suggest a group-analytic formulation. I shall then go on to describe the clinical implications of taking this approach, and shall describe how ADHD is too important to keep out of the analytic field, and suggest that group analysis has much to offer in the emerging discourse on social interactional neuroscience.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Denmark: development, implementation in the public health service and present status

The history of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy in Denmark is briefly described. An important element in developing the psychodynamic thinking in the public mental health service took place in the 1970s where several British psychoanalysts and group analysts helped Danish therapists and analysts starting regular courses in psychoanalytic psychotherapy that were attended by a few hundred psychologists and psychiatrists. The implementation of psychodynamic thinking and practice in the Mental Health System followed over the next two decades, although the Danish welfare system did not economically support patients referred to psychoanalysis, long-term or intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy. At the new millennium, opposition to psychoanalysis and psychodynamic thinking made it difficult to sustain the relative high level of involvement of psychodynamic practice in both mental health institutions and private practice. The reasons for this are suggested as well as comments on the future.

The white mirror: Face to face with racism in group analysis part 1—mainly theory

Group analysis privileges the social and political, aiming to address individual distress and ‘disturbance’ within a representation of the context it developed and persists in. Reproducing the presence and impact of racism in groups comes easily while creating conditions for reparation can be complicated. This is despite considerable contributions to the subject of racism by group analysts. By focusing on an unconscious, defensive manoeuvre I have observed in groups when black people describe racism in their lives, I hope to build upon the existing body of work. I will discuss the manoeuvre which I call the white mirror. I aim to theoretically elucidate the white mirror. I will argue that it can be understood as a vestigial trauma response with roots as far back as the invention of ‘race’. Through racialized sedimentation in the social unconscious, it has been generationally transmitted into the present day. It emerges in an exacerbated way within the amplified space of analytic groups when there is ethnically-diverse membership. I argue it is inevitable and even essential that racism emerges in groups as a manifestation of members’ racialized social unconscious including that of the conductor(s). This potentially offers opportunities for individual, group and societal reparation and healing. However, when narratives of racism are instead pushed to one side, regarded as a peripheral issue of concern only to minority black or other members of colour, I ask whether systems of segregation, ghettoization or colonization are replicated in analytic groups. This is the first of two articles about the white mirror. The second article which is also published in this issue highlights practice implications.

The white mirror: Face to face with racism in group analysis part 2—mainly practice

This is my second article about a form of group mirroring I have called the white mirror. The previous article focused on underpinning theory. This article is practice oriented. I argue that the white mirror is a defensive structure, primarily functioning to prevent white group members, including the conductor(s) from coming face to face with the reality of racism. It mirrors projections in the form of racist stereotypes for black members to internalize in their position as the location of disturbance. I highlight present and historical black victimization which I feel requires elucidation given its position in the shadows of psychotherapy. I am mindful of the intersecting nature of identities and touch on this through a clinical example. I suggest how group analysts might work with the ubiquity of racism, engaging ethnically-diverse members at a level of full and mutual humanity.

The psychodynamics of lynch mobs: Grouping, ganging or lynching

This article engages with human groupings when they are operating at their very worst. These are human groupings enacting a particularly insidious, enduring and specific set of ‘othering’ dynamics that occur within and between in-groups and out-groups. This is known as lynching and these vicious and destructive human groupings are known as ‘lynch mobs’. I attempt to bring a psychodynamic lens to explore the complex issues that constitute the particular group dynamics enacted by ‘lynch mobs’ that usually target members of marginalized communities. I consider the meaning of the assault in the context of white supremacy and, whilst foregrounding race in the discussion, recognizing that members of other marginalized groups such as gay men and women are often lynched. The article shows how psychodynamic ideas can contribute to our understanding of this most horrific and inhumane phenomena, and can provide clinicians with some conceptual tools to manage the myriad of complex issues related to lynching and how it presents currently. Can lynching dynamics be compared and contrasted with bullying and scapegoating dynamics and, if so, can they be paralleled and operate more subtly and interpersonally in our psychotherapy groups and within our organizations and work teams? If so, do we have the theoretical and conceptual skills to work with them? I argue that there is now more than ever a need to remain relevant to the diverse and often-marginalized communities we serve and that we must develop our theories and practices to address such phenomena. To do this requires group analysts and, indeed, all clinicians to urgently scrutinize and develop theories and techniques in working with these very dangerous othering dynamics in our practices and clinics. A lack of intervention equates to by-standing or turning a blind eye, which is a significant factor in lynching dynamics, and a complicit collusion with the traumatization of marginalized communities.

Grenzen in der sozialpädagogischen gruppenanalytischen Arbeit oder: Der wandernde Reisepass und die missbrauchte Salatschüssel

Summary Boundaries in Social Pedagogical Group Analytical Work Or: The Marching Passport and the Abused Salad Bowl Boundaries are thought to be constitutive elements of education, as already described by Bernfeld. Adolescents have to overcome their families’ boundaries in order to „immigrate“ into society. In case that they live in groups of educational aid (§ 34 SGB VIII), they first must build new relationships instead of the dysfunctional ones in their families. Of critical importance for the success of this process are the construction, sustainability, and development of peer groups as well as solidarity-based communities. Using specific case examples, it is shown that this kind of group construction is achieved by the adolescents themselves, and how it can be supported by a professional-auxiliary, group analytic attitude of the professional educators. This requires both the mental survival of the individual educators (sustaining, containment) with the aid of their team as well as the insistence of the organization itself on its professional task against any imposition associated with fake-professional efficiency orientation. A group-analytic orientation can be helpful here, too. In this way, residential educational aid proves to be a fruitful area of application and research for group analysts.

Working with psychotic anxieties in the group

The training of group analysts teaches the conductor mainly how to work with neurotic symptoms and anxieties. This article attempts to widen this frame by considering how to work with psychotic anxieties stemming from experiences in early infancy when the environment failed the patient in providing secure holding and a facilitating environment for growth. Using insights by Jung based on his association experiments and his complex theory, as well as Winnicott’s view of psychotic illness as a defence and his understanding of working with primitive agonies, this article describes how to work with psychotic anxieties in the group.

The body in group analysis

This article explores the history of the exclusion/inclusion of the body in group analytic theory and practice. At the same time, it aims to promote the subject of the body in the mind of group analysts. The main thesis of the article is that sitting in a circle, face-to-face, is a radical change in the transition Foulkes made from psychoanalysis to group analysis. The implications of this transition have not been explored, and in many cases, have been denied. The article describes the vicissitudes of relating group analysis to the body from the time of Foulkes and Anthony’s work until today. The article claims that working with the body in the group demands that the conductor gives special attention to his/her own bodily sensations and feelings, while at the same time remaining cognizant of the fact that each of the participants is a person with a physical body in which their painful history is stored, and that they may be dissociated because of that embodied history. The thesis of the article is followed by a clinical example. The article ends with the conclusion that being in touch with one’s own body demands a lot of training.