Transference
and Countertransference as Basic to Analytic Group Therapy
Because the patient
transfers onto the
group members/therapist, it allows him/her to form an intensive relationship of
dependence, and it reflects the degree of their maturity or the amount of
psychopathology present. The therapist should use the transference
constructively. It exists, even if he/she is not aware of it or doesn’t use it.
The presence and recognition of
transference establishes analytic group psychotherapy as distinct from the
encounter and humanistic psychology movements. The therapist watches for the
transference, uses it, and works it through before a patient leaves the group.
Transference and countertransference
differ in the group from that in individual sessions, the definitions from
Freud still hold.
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Definition of the Transference:
The concept of transference can only be
appreciated in terms of its historical development, different schools emphasise
different aspects.
Freud referred to transference as “an
almost inexhaustible subject”. The patients’ modes of relating in the therapy
group are similar to those they use outside of treatment.
Transference is the process in
which a person projects a pattern of adaption which was developed in a
previous life situation to a current life situation; s/he then displaces
the affect from
that situation to the present situation.
Although the intensity of the
transference on any one individual is reduced, the total emotional feeling is
multiplied and intensified by the group situation.
Transference can be observed, clarified,
and reduced, with a resulting fundamental change in the
personality of
the patient.
Transference makes the other person appear to
be what they are not. Transference makes the perceived appear to be another.
Characteristics are put into the other
that they do not have. It can emphasise or de-emphasise a person out of all proportion. Success
in group psychotherapy depends largely on making transference overt, and working
through them.
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