Mechanisms and evaluation of healing in group psychotherapy

Abstract

The thesis of this paper is that in therapeutic groups a pathological structure is formed, which we call group sickness.
The aim of any therapeutic group should be to provoke and develop this sickness, which is somehow different from the individual sickness of its components and includes the therapeutists.
Examples are given of the influence of the different constitutions of the “therapeutic formula”.
The situation of the group is compared to the individual one and it must be pointed out that the sickness of the group has no previous history but starts, spreads and evolves with the group treatment.
As in individual treatment, the phantasies of sickness of the group are worked out through the analysis of the group transference. Thus the group gains insight and the defenses (mostly psychopathic) are modified.
Examples are given to show how different parts of a group are integrated through the interpretation of the transference.
The cure of a therapeutic group is conceived in function of the analysis of the group sickness and it is considered that the degree of improvement or cure is proportional to the degree of participation in it.
The individual cure of each component of the group and the cure of the group are examined separately, although it is pointed out that they are closely connected.
The fact is mentioned that sometimes individual illness is used as a defense against the group sickness.
Finally some anxieties are analyzed, which renden difficult the cure of a therapeutic group and impede reparation considered as a group phenomenon.