Psychoanalytic Group Research Articles

Crazy

Wilfred Bion, a mid-twentieth-century pioneer of the psychoanalysis of groups, described a group as the repository of the mad parts of ourselves. The group helps us to tame our madness, but it may also exaggerate it, reviving infantile trends, and an anxious group will typically select its maddest member as its leader. The mad leader is a kind of baby king, an avatar of our infantile past, who licenses a departure from reality and, in particular, a denial of our own badness. That is to say, the mania of a mad president relieves us of the responsibility to mourn. Afflicted as we are by a manic negation of reality—the realities of climate change, nuclear armaments, the pain of others—Nixon argues that we also live in a time of mass melancholia. For the author the confrontation of such a psychical reality of melancholia is necessary for our survival, and writers, teachers, and artists must help turn it into creative resistance.

Republican Tradition: Reloaded

The detailed interdisciplinary analysis of all four components of the republican tradition in terms of social psychology, sociology, group psychoanalysis, ethology, organisation theory, organisational behaviour and other disciplines has allowed us to determine the conditions under which they can be fully realised in modern political parties as the organisational ideal. We demonstrated that the construction of a Republic should begin from the creation of crystallisation centres – multi-intelligent social model political organisations that allow for a systemic implementation of the four components of republicanism by changing the course of natural group dynamics in primary groups of all party units. Changing the course of natural group dynamics in units of political organisations is possible only through the use of appropriate organisational tools, such as the variable structure – dynamic network, for their creation and construction. As a result of their successful operation and growth of their authority, the entire society will restructure following the pattern of such successful crystallisation centres and will adopt their proposed values, which will enable the state to acquire all the qualities of a modern Republic.

„Die Veränderung beginnt im Therapeuten“ (Herberth/Maurer): Die Überwindung einer destruktiven Dynamik in einer Therapiegruppe

Summary “Changes Begin Within the Psychotherapist” (Herberth/Maurer): How Destructive Psychodynamics Could be Overcome in a Psychoanalytic Group Setting Based on the course of an ambulant, slow-open psychoanalytic group over two years it will be demonstrated how destructive group dynamics seized the group and how it could finally be overcome. Initially, several new participants could not successfully integrate themselves in the group, several “early dropouts” being the result. Thereafter, even a longtime member of the group terminated treatment; the group faced discontinuation. Intuitively I assumed a connection to the psychodynamics of a patient who had suffered the Sudden Infant Death of her daughter prior to treatment. But this did not yet enable me to stop the destructive group dynamics. With the help of supervision I came to recognize my involvement with thepatient. As a result, my inner position towards the patient changed. This marked a turning point within the group – from now on it was again possible for new participants to arrive in the group. Retrospectively I was able to make the interpretation for the patient that she had unconsciously made me feel like losing a child. Thereafter, faced with a new co-patient intending to terminate group therapy, it was her who struggled constructively to hold her in the group, trying to build her a bridge to help her stay.

Developing deep group reflection within a Critical Reflection Action Learning set

ABSTRACTThis account of practice describes how a manufacturing company in the North of England transformed their approach to problem-solving and action through the use of a Critical Reflection Action Learning (CRAL) methodology. The company, who had been in business for over 25 years, experienced problems due to a diminishing customer base and substantial changes in customers’ buying behaviour. The account presented here is based on a 12-session CRAL project I carried out as part of my Ph.D. Research at the University of Hull Business School [Shepherd, G. 2011. “An Inductive Exploration of Group Learning and Knowledge Generation through Group Reflection and Psychoanalysis.” PhD Thesis, University of Hull Business School]. This paper describes how the organisation changed the way in which they tackled complex, messy problems through the adoption of a CRAL technique using their own hand-drawn images as the focus for their individual, group and critical reflective efforts. As the action learning set improved their reflective practice, the group began to understand and untangle the complex links between the problems they were experiencing and the way in which the business environment had changed. The group completed the project with a more nuanced appreciation of the problems they experienced and developed their own unique problem-solving style, which mixed reflective questioning with emotional honesty.

Les groupes analytiques multifamiliaux pour adolescents

From the introduction of a first multi-family psychoanalytical group for young patients after their hospitalization, the authors illustrate how this original group therapy contributes to the elaboration of inter-subjective conflicts between the adolescents and their parents and to the psychical working over of intra-subjective conflicts by each group member. Multi-family psychoanalysis, barely known in France, consists in gathering several adolescents and their parents together with co-therapists. It can be fruitful when indicated for young patients who have so far been resistant to traditional therapies. For adolescents, it contributes to parental objects’ decathexis, paradoxically in their very presence. The abundance of identificatory supports leads every member of a multi-family psychoanalytical group to reinforce the ability to associate, to relaunch conflictuality and redeploy libido onto objects of substitution.

Extreme trauma in a polluted area: Bonds and relational transformations in an Italian community

In the community of Casale Monferrato, exposure to asbestos has led to an extremely traumatic situation that has encompassed cancer and death and affected a variety of social and environmental aspects of both individuals and the community. When an entire community is severely traumatized, psychoanalytic group therapy seems to be the most suitable therapeutic setting: it allows for the historization of the event and the creation of multiple narratives of somatopsychic suffering, producing a transformative effect on nonmentalized emotional aggregates. Making reference to clinical material, I will show how the possibility of sharing, with other minds, the meaning of the trauma also brought into the field each participant's vital aspects, possibly not very intense in each individual but consistently present in the functioning of the mind of the group. I will also illustrate how this led to the development of a new and more mature psychic asset, with which painful and deadly experiences connected to the trauma could be faced.

Gruppenanalyse - Individualpsychologie - neuere Entwicklungen

Summary In the context of psychotherapy within the German health service, the number of people making use of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic group therapy provision remains miserably low. Research results as well as general experience have both proved that (given a correct indication) this form of therapy is at least as effective as individual psychotherapy. Not many of the therapists trained in group therapy actually practise this method. Furthermore, too few group therapists have been trained in recent years. Foulkes’ group therapy seems to be the method of choice for Adlerian therapists. Some recent developments in group psychotherapy are discussed here, with particular reference to Foulkes’ theory of levels, which offers a complex understanding of groups, not only in the field of psychotherapy. The leader of the group takes up a specific position at the edge of the group, both in Foulkes’ theory and in the socalled »Gottinger« method, which is seen to be the second major type of group therapy. Indica...

Burnout-or heartburn? A psychoanalytic view on staff Burnout in the context of service transformation in a crisis service in Leeds

Crisis resolution and home treatment teams (CRHT) are integral to acute psychiatric services. This survey quantifies staff burnout using the MBI-HSS (Maslach Burnout Inventory) and notes sources of stress and satisfaction before (2012) and after (2013) service transformation of a CRHT in Leeds into a single point of access, with home treatment devolved to community teams. Moderate to high Burnout scores were observed over the study period, with a rise in the mean depersonalisation score from 5.8 to 7.2 over the study period. Contact with colleagues; work with patients and variety of work emerged as rewarding while themes of suicide and violence were most linked with stress, with clinicians reporting self-doubt in the face of difficult clinical decisions. Clinicians positively rated a weekly psychoanalytic reflective practice group. A pictorial representation of qualitative results uses psychoanalytic theory inconceptualising ‘skins’ around various aspects of the clinical setting, which then become semipermeable in response to a patient in crisis when clinicians feel poorly supported by the changing organisation.

Massive Trauma in A Community Exposed to Asbestos: Thinking and Dissociation among the Inhabitants of Casale Monferrato

In Casale Monferrato, asbestos exposure has been a traumatic occurrence that has caused cancer and death among the town's inhabitants, resulting in the loss of trust and hope with regard to the future and the loss of healthy aspects of the self. This traumatic history has been denied for many years – part of an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude that is often justified by financial interests. When traumatization is due to the careless behaviour of the owners of the major economic resources in a community, group identity is deeply affected. In such a situation, psychoanalytic group therapy seems to be the best means to historicize the event and create multiple narratives of somatopsychic suffering. In this paper, we present the experience of the first multifamily group in Casale Monferrato, focusing on the possibility of ‘diluting’ transference‐ and countertransference‐related feelings of helplessness, thereby making them more bearable and thinkable. Sharing the meaning of the trauma also highlighted vital aspects in the functioning of the mind of the group, leading to a new and more mature way of facing illness and death.

Imaginário Coletivo de Agentes Comunitárias de Saúde Sobre Álcool e Outras Drogas

This study aimed to understand the collective imaginary of community health agents (CHAs) from a unit of the Estrategia Saude da Familia (Family Health Strategy) in relation to use/abuse of alcohol and other drugs. The locus for the data collection was a psychoanalytic group discussion developed over seven meetings, which had as a facilitator the first author and seven CHAs participants. The corpus was qualitatively analyzed by means of an interpretative reading focused on capturing affective-emotional sense fields. Three affective-emotional sense fields were raised, and on this occasion it was decided to focus the findings concerning the first one, as it was organized from the belief that health care to alcohol and other drugs users depends on the availability, by the same users, to stop completely using such substances. However, this belief is not compatible with the harm reduction logic as recommended by the Ministerio da Saude (Brazilian Ministry of Health). Thus, the results provide elements for understanding important nuances of the collective imaginary of the participants of this study regarding alcohol and other drugs use/abuse. Nevertheless, further researches are need given the scarcity of literature devoted to the subject.

Contribution of Christianity to the Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy

Introduction The paper shows the possibility of using the Christian-Orthodox spiritual experience and Orthodox personality anthropology in psychoanalytic individual and group psychotherapy. Objectives Protocols of group psychoanalytic psychotherapy are relating to the working with addicts in the Orthodox community. Reviews of individual psychotherapy are in private practice. Aims We follow the manifestations of narcissistic psychopathology, as well as investments of false self. The goals of psychotherapy and Orthodox spirituality are to realize the true self. Knowledge of the Orthodox faith is particularly useful in working with patients who say for themselves to be Orthodox. The Orthodox community for the rehabilitation of drug addicts is based on the Community. Orthodox Christian anthropology points to the Trinity God – the maturity of personality exists only in the Community of Three Personalities in One. In individual psychotherapy Community is the transfer?nce-countertransference relationship. Methods Observation is made in two Christian-psychoanalytic entities: envy and forgiveness. We start from the Orthodox determinants: - Using feelings to tell us something else is considered as an indicator that we have not overcome that in ourselves; - Interpretation of possibilities of giving / not giving, in terms of the p?tient having or / not having; - We emphasize self-esteem and respect for others. In the ?rthodox literature we read that 'no one can humiliate us if we do not let him.' Results Therapist's spiritual experience of the Orthodox faith opens the possibility of extending psychoanalytic psychotherapy techniques. Christianity has been enriching psychoanalytic developmental theory.

Community exposure to asbestos in Casale Monferrato: from research on psychological impact to a community needs-centered healthcare organization.

Asbestos exposure has a negative impact on both the physical health of the population, and on its psychological and community components. Usually such issues are addressed via top-down strategies, but this approach is unable to address the interpersonal processes connected to living in a specific context. The work carried on in Casale Monferrato since 2006 proceeds in the opposite direction: promoting a different interaction between health system policy-makers and administrators, field actions, and system thinking. Our goal was to create a reliable model that could fit into other contexts, while being flexible and adapting to specific backgrounds. Starting from the results obtained during a first assessment phase, a psychoanalytic group was arranged, aimed at promoting the symbolization and signification of the emotions related to the ill-fated prognosis. The clinical work offers a space for handling the illness and its psychological impact, in order to achieve: 1) a subjective perception of themselves as not impotent and alone; 2) improved abilities of caregivers to manage the disease; 3) enhanced quality of residual life. An integrated multidimensional intervention promotes resilience in the community, but it requires time, for patients, relatives, and the professionals involved. Only with the combined support of oncologists and the entire ward staff will an internal trust be free to grow within a somato-psychic space able to accommodate and sustain the participants during the final stages of their own life, or that of someone close to them.

Achieving Consciousness and Transformation in the Classroom: Race, Gender, Sexual Orientations and Social Justice

This paper examines the way in which the selected use of transformative pedagogy can affect student consciousness about race, gender, and sexual orientation. Students in an upper division honors class at a large research university were required to post six comments per week to an online class portal, related to readings, class discussions, videos, and presentations, for a class on the public education pedagogies. Our research examines these web posts where students are encourages and free to express their feelings and ideas. At the end of the semester, students were asked to utilize these posts in order to identify evidence of personal transformation. Both the original posts and students final papers were then coded using the typologies proposed by Bion in his work with psychoanalytic groups which classified statements by their “work-oriented” content or their fight/flight content (Bion, 1961). We found that students’ final papers contained a larger percentage of work-oriented statements than their web-posts. This increase in self-examination and confrontation can be attributed to the transformation of identities. We argue that the work of Mezirow (1994) and Bion (1961) present useful ways of understanding transformation. We also suggest two major limitations of Mezirow’s work are his neglect of multiple identities each of which can be involved in transformation and his failure to state explicitly that transformation, more often than not, involves action related to social justice.

The Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society: Its Beginings

The Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society: Its Beginings Bernard Frankel1 issn 0362-4021 © 2015 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society group, Vol. 39, No. 2, Summer 2015 103 1 Clinical Professor, Derner Instiute, Adelphi University Psychotherapy Training Programs. Correspondence should be addressed to Bernard Frankel, PhD, ABPP, LCSW, BCD, LFAGPA, One Morning Side Drive, Apt. 1714, New York, NY 10025. E-mail: BFBC@optonline.net. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society (EGPS). As one of the few octogenarians still alive with an intact memory, I am pleased to write a brief article about the society’s early history. Most of my contemporaries are deceased, and only Herb Rabin is still alive. Originally born in 1955 and almost a clone of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) in regard to parallel activity, the original EGPS became defunct after 12 years. For almost six years, EGPS held no meetings and only an occasional scientific event. No one was taking care of the store, and the presidency became an honorary (and meaningless) title. Some thought that AGPA, which until 1961 had had its annual conferences in New York City, was the more desirable place for (stepping up the ladder) national recognition. Others thought that EGPS was too intertwined with the Post-Graduate Center, the only training center for analytic group therapy at the time. What was missing was diversity and differentiation to breathe life into a dying organization. In 1968, along came Zanvel Liff, who began to meet with Max Siegel, of Brooklyn College (and president of the American Psychological Association), and me, from the Center for Group Psychoanalysis and Process. We were, though committed to group and family therapy, a diverse group. We organized an active board, and I had the task of organizing the first annual conference of EGPS with a great committee of famous names. We were off and running. As conference chair, I planned and implemented the first four conferences with some of my other octogenarians . The conferences were well attended, and our presenters were the who’s who of group and family therapy: Al Wolf, Helen Durkin, Henny Glatzer, Cliff Sager, 104 frankel Hy Spotnitz, Asya Kadis, Milton Berger, Harold Leopold, Betsy Mintz, and other luminaries whose names could fill a page. These were the outstanding clinicians, educators, and innovators of the time. Institute fees were no more than $30, and workshops were only $5 each. We were able to hire an administrative assistant, Ruth Marcus, who was with us for many years. We added a lot of money to fill an ample treasury and used to have a catered party for the entire EGPS membership at no charge. Who ever heard of presenter’s fees at that time? At one point we had more than $100,000 in the bank. Concurrently, there was a lot of excitement and experimentation about the growing humanistic movement in the therapies. Encounter group techniques were being tried, and we brought the leaders of gestalt therapy and transactional analysis to New York City for Friday-to-Sunday workshops. Subsequent conferences introduced family therapy with Peggy Papp and Phil Guerin. Family therapy became an important part of our learning environment for many years—but it is now diminished, unfortunately. One reason for this decline is the polarization of AGPA and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy into two separate and detached entities. Gone are the days when, at AGPA conferences, I would conduct family therapy demonstrations for 100 registrants. The idea of themes for conferences did not emerge until 1978, starting with “Narcissism in Group and Family Therapy” in EGPS. What a cast: Bergmann, Alger , Fieldsteel, Spotnitz, Guerin, Papp, and others. With themes, we were playing copycat with AGPA. Prior to the birth of the Annual Spring Event, which is about 12 years old, there was some attempt each April to have all-day training workshops in New York City, Westchester, and Nassau-Suffolk on Fridays and Saturdays, costing from $15 to $30. In addition, in 1977, we had an annual weekend of group supervision for group therapists at the fee of $50 for one day and $75 for two. What a bargain, with Al...

Helping traumatized people survive: a psychoanalytic intervention in a contaminated site.

Psychoanalytic literature on extreme traumatization usually distinguishes between natural catastrophes and man-made catastrophes. While the first ones are usually sensed as nature’s ferocity, fate, or God’s will, the second ones are experienced as a volountary and violent attack aimed at disrupting other human beings. In this paper we focus on man-made disasters caused by a profit-driven logic. When traumatization is due to irresponsible actions perpetrated by the owners of the major economic resource of a community, it deeply affects the identity of the group, entailing the loss of basic trust and lively parts of the Self. In such a situation, where the whole community is severely traumatized, psychoanalytic group therapy seems to be the most suitable setting: it allows to place the historization of the event and the creation of multiple narratives of somato-psychic suffering. Trust and faith are two crucial factors in the encounter with patients lacking a sense of vitality. The working through of each one through the group field is an essential forerunner to the construction of a recovered sense of faith and reliability that precedes the onset of a true new-beginning.

L'institution et la place des familles en protection de l'enfance

The child protection system in France has gradually changed along the lines of the laws enacted in 2002 and 2007 that reasserted the importance of the role played by the parents. Far from condemning the family, it henceforth seeks to provide it with accompaniment so as to ensure the child’s future reintegration. Grounded in psychoanalytical group and family theories, the article investigates the psychic function of the institution and (with case studies to support it) discusses what has to be done to make arrangements within the therapeutic framework for families to make progress and maintain ties despite the absence of direct relations. For it is only after a real period of separation that work on the young person’s psychic group experience will enable the family to move forward.

The Dialogues in and of the Group: Lacanian Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Group (review)

The Dialogues in and of the Group: Lacanian Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Group (review)

The prague psychoanalytic study group 1933–1938: Frances Deri, Annie Reich, Theodor Dosužkov, and Heinrich LöWenfeld, and their contributions to psychoanalysis

The prague psychoanalytic study group 1933–1938: Frances Deri, Annie Reich, Theodor Dosužkov, and Heinrich LöWenfeld, and their contributions to psychoanalysis

The Dialogues in and of the Group: Lacanian Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Group

The Dialogues in and of the Group: Lacanian Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Group

Bullying in Psychoanalytic Life: A Few Episodes, and Some Thoughts

This article explores several examples of bullying in psychoanalytic training (often candidates bullied by faculty, but at times faculty bullied by candidates, or mutual bullying among candidates) and within psychoanalytic societies. It proposes that this may happen both in homogeneous groups (where individuals seen as disloyal to the common views may be harassed) and in heterogeneous groups (where theoretical disagreements and competition may deteriorate). Interpretations outside the consulting room (and in some instances even within an analytic setting) may become a subtle form of bullying. Although many professional and political groups may exhibit subtle and rationalized forms of bullying, their impact is more powerful in psychoanalytic groups on the background of transference–countertransference feelings originating in members' personal analyses with other members. A readiness to expose and discuss such episodes is crucial if we wish to reduce their destructive influence in training and in subsequent relations among analytic colleagues.