Group Analysis

Why is ethnic membership so important for identity? The author answers that culture is an inseparable element of personal identity and the distinction of identity from intrapsychic, interpsychic and transpsychic experience does not correspond to the psychic reality of the self. There is a reciprocal `conception' between individual and world: the `subject' is constructed by a transpersonal world that he or she reelaborates. In such a sense the small group can be seen as a laboratory, because it allows a confrontation of similarities and differences and the elaboration of cultural, institutional, individual and family dimensions.

To move from the intrapsychic field of identification to the psychosocial field of identity it is necessary to refer to `groups of belonging', which create, within transitional space, the conditions for metabolizing psychic reality and the outside world, the differentiation of the ego and non-ego, the space within and the space without, narcissism and the cathexis of objects. Such a group thus constitutes the missing link enabling us to determine both the relationship of the singular subject with the collective entity (and vice versa) and their mutual involvement. The distinction between the primary (or natural) group of belonging and a secondary (or instituted) group of belonging makes it possible to account for their evolution across generations, and the effects of personal and social traumas on the structuring of the psyche.

Within the framework of research on the cultural foundation of the person and of identity, experiences in two intercultural Group-analytic workshops, are described and analysed. The setting of these workshops produced crises in the cultural envelope of the participants. Through the individual and group processes it was possible to analyse nonindividuated zones of the Self, traumas in the primary family group and the impact of historical traumatic events. In the transitional space elaborated during the workshop, participants were able to work on these cultural dimensions of the Self in a perspective of enquiry and personal change.

The author tries to establish theoretically the notion of identity. She finds similarities between the concepts of character and identity and underlines that the building up of identity is necessary for each individual, but that identity, when reinforced by the death drive, can also become a dangerous weapon against all that is considered non-identical.

The author describes the connection between changes in the social environment and changes in the psychic reality manifested in the feelings and clinical syndromes of patients. Depression can result from threat to basic truths and values. It emerged that attachment to these truths and values created a chance to break the specific Polish cycle of experiencing hope and then losing it. Three types of depression are discussed: the `bravery syndrome', `inner migration' and `giving up'.

The author's main thesis is that language embodies both cultural and individual identity. This has important implications for the psychotherapeutic treatment of bilingual patients: not only can they use their second language as a powerful defence against unbearable memories and feelings, as happened with Josef Breuer's patient Anna 0, but a second language can profoundly alter an individual's sense of cultural and individual identity. This has important implications for the individual's relation to the group and to society in general. If language is to culture what DNA is to genetics, there is little doubt that the language we speak is of crucial importance to the way we relate to the world about us.

Levels and phases of the group process as presented in the literature are discussed in reference to individual and group analysis. The author's three-level, segment, cylinder and V-form models are presented as possible answers to the important question of how the dynamics of the group as a whole fit with the dynamics of each individual member The models are illustrated by four diagrams.

The author explores the need for staff consultation groups to `contain the containers', `the workers, the caring professions'. She outlines some of the factors to take into account when setting up these groups and comments on important aspects of the group process, particularly the role of the group conductor; focusing on the differences between staff group consultancy and group analysis.

As group work supervisor in a UK National Health Service Psychotherapy Unit the author was faced with a serious disruption of setting. This paper is his attempt to tell that story. Emphasis is placed upon the importance of context and setting and what can happen if this is disrupted. A wider analysis of the current state of group therapy in the NHS is offered, some contemporary issues are discussed and future developments are explored.