Transference and Countertransference in Group Psychotherapy*

The physical symptoms and disturbed behavior of the emotionally ill are so easy to perceive that Freud pointed out their similarity to monuments erected to commemorate historic events. But the underlying psychic mechanisms and the germs of pathological dispositions are never visible to the naked eye. A more powerful lens than that provided by nature is required to see the mental anatomy. The investigation of inner realities with a view to helping people evolve into emotional maturity is the main occupation and preoccupation of the psychotherapist.

At this point in history we utilize two instruments—similar in some basic respects and different in others—to diagnose and investigate the functioning of the mind and to influence this functioning. One is psychoanalysis; the other is analytic group psychotherapy. Psychoanalysis as a research instrument has contributed as much to the science of human behavior as the microscope has contributed to the science of bacteriology. As a medical student in the thirties, I heard psychoanalysis referred to as the microscope of the mind. It seems appropriate to refer to the second instrument—analytic group psychotherapy—as the electron microscope of the mind.

One important difference between these instruments lies in their resolving power—that is, their ability to produce distinguishable images of internal realities. The older microscope has sufficient resolving power to magnify the psychodynamic events