Sexual Rivalry in Group Psychoanalysis

In this paper, I shall describe the development of sexual rivalries in a group of five women and four men. Some account will be given of the character structures of the people involved. Finally, I shall discuss the possible meanings and explanations of these group phenomena.

This is a heterogeneous, open, and continuous group. People with different problems and backgrounds have been in the group varying lengths of time. They meet for an hour and a half once a week with me, and also in a weekly alternate session without me.

There have been six people involved in romantic acting out and overt sexual rivalry. Don is 33 years old, unhappily married, and has a three-year-old child. He was separated once from his wife and is thinking of separating again. He is a college instructor with an M.A. and is about two or three years overdue on his Ph.D. He has great work problems, finds it difficult to concentrate and apply himself. He shows much resignation, but also swings into narcissistic behavior which can exude an unreliable charm. He is loaded with self-hate, inertia, and hopelessness.

Rosalind is an attractive, 38-year-old married woman with two children. She appears warm, helpful, and friendly. However, she is troubled by obsessive fears that she will kill her children or herself. She is basically self-effacing with a strong trend toward morbid dependency. She is self-rejecting and masochistic.

Lorraine is an attractive, 30-year-old, married woman. She came into the group revealing arrogant-vindictive traits. She has a miserable relationship with her husband. They indulge in frequent and furious quarrels. She is sexually frigid and finds the act abhorrent. She is unable really to love and is loaded with much hostility. Yet she is lonely, conflicted about her needs for love, and hungry for some acceptance. However, she must dominate her relationships.

Sandra is a striking 32-year-old brunette, who has two children and is very unhappy with her husband. She has had a duodenal ul