The Therapeutic Effect of the Group as Preoedipal Mother

In 1947 Spotnitz identified certain emotional currents of feeling which operate in the group setting. He identified these as:

1. The reproductive constellation of forces

2. The inadequacy constellation of forces

By the reproductive constellation Spotnitz meant those forces that make themselves felt in the desire to have gratifying sex and in the desire to produce a child who will become an adult, healthier and better in every aspect than the parent.

The inadequacy constellation refers to the physical, emotional and integrational inadequacies which deter individuals from the achievement of the ultimate aim of the constellation, i.e., the production of a child who will become a better adult than the parent (Spotnitz, 1947; Spotnitz and Gabriel, 1950).

Spotnitz also identified a third emotional current, the negative reproductive constellation, which referred to those emotional forces which operated in the desire to thwart and prevent sexual gratification and pregnancy, which operated in the desire to produce defective children and to block them from healthy emotional development so that they never in any way become superior to the parent. In treatment these forces are expressed in the treatment-destructive resistances. The most extreme expression of the negative reproductive constellation is seen in the Holocaust.

All these forces can become resistances, i.e., if under the influence of the reproductive constellation, group members set about making babies with each other, or if a whole group encourages two of its members to act out sexually. Under the influence of the inadequacy constellation, group members may feel so undeserving of help that