A Case Illustration of Psychoanalytic Group Therapy
This particular group consists of three men (A, B, C),
three women (X, Y, Z), and the therapist. The therapist
is a psychoanalytically oriented psychiatrist. The meet-
ing place is the therapist’s office. He arranges chairs in
a circle, seating himself behind his desk. He knows each
of the members, having had them in individual treat-
ment for several to several hundred sessions. The
group meets twice weekly, for an hour at a time, and is
“closed”; that is, no new members will be permitted
during the life of the group. Here, we present excerpts
from the first and the tenth group sessions. The mem-
bers do not know one another when the first session
begins.Session 1
Therapist:This is our first session in an experience that I
hope will be helpful to each of you. None of you
know each other, and I would like to introduce
you. To my right is Mr. A....
Now that we are through with introductions,
I would like to explain how I think we should
operate, and make some remarks that I hope will
help us in getting the greatest value out of group
psychotherapy.
Each of you has been in individual therapy
with me. But we are starting here afresh. I will not
reveal in the group any information that I may
have about you that I have obtained prior to
today. In general, the same rules will hold as in
individual therapy—that is to say, you will speak
about whatever may be in your mind, and I will
try to tell you whatever I see in your statements.
You may try to analyze one another if you wish. I
expect that each of you will respect each other’s
confidences. While I cannot give you any guaran-
tees about the other members, I know each of you
rather well, and I have every confidence in the
integrity of each of you. But at the same time you
will do well to use your good judgment on what
to talk about.
Idon’t expect to talk in the future as much as I
will today in the first session, but let me continue a
bit more with some further information. First, psy-
chotherapy is psychotherapy, no matter in which
mode it is found. Essentially, it is a problem of self-
understanding, learning what unconscious motives
excite us to behavior. We want to attain insight, so
that we will understand what is behind our
behavior and our reactions. The goal of psycho-
therapy is increased satisfaction with ourselves andgreater improvement in social behavior. Second,
you may be somewhat suspicious about this
method, and you think, as I know from talks with
each of you, that it may be difficult for you to
reveal yourself to others. I think you all share this
feeling. However, if you will be able to defer
judgment and share in the discussions, you may
find that the group method will be valuable and
more useful than you believe now. Third, the
experience of being in the group per se may not be
of value, unless you participate. As trite as this may
seem, you will probably get no more out of the
situation than you put in. And finally, we may
experience all sorts of positive and negative atti-
tudes about one another. These transferences are
an essential part of psychotherapy, and you should
not be upset if you go through these experiences.
I think that I have said enough, but let me
conclude by saying that I am very optimistic about
the potentialities of what we are doing, and that
I have great hopes we shall all benefit. And so, let
us now start.Session 10
Therapist:Well, I guess we are all here and ought to
begin. I wonder how things have been going with
Miss Z? She seemed to be right in the midst of a
problem when we stopped last session.
A:I was wondering about that too. I hoped that she
was able to make out.
Z:Well, I thought quite a lot about what we discussed,
and I am glad to say that I think I made progress. I
realized that I was fighting with my mother
because of resentment I had to her, and that I
really did not love her as much as I thought. Then,
it came to me, I was really too dependent on her
and it would be much healthier if I were able to
deal more realistically with her. After all, it wasn’t
good for her, either.
Y:Then you think you really don’t love your mother?
Z:I wouldn’t say that. What I think is true is that I am
overly dependent on her, and that my resentment
of her was really a resentment of myself because,
because...no one really loves me. [Begins to cry]
X:I feel that Z is wrong. People can love her, just any-
body can be loved, but in order to be loved, you
have to love others.434 CHAPTER 15