Protecting the individual from the destructive effects of emotional overstimulation has been a historic concern of modern psychoanalysis. That effect is heightened within the group setting. The highly charged atmosphere of the group is seen as deriving from the exposure of each member to his or her feelings toward all the occupants of the meeting room and all of their verbal and nonverbal responses to him or her. The individual's capacity to assimilate this volatile mixture requires careful study and evaluation. This paper focuses on the crucial role of the group therapist in monitoring and regulating the degree of emotional excitation to which individuals and group are exposed. The varied sources of overstimulation are identified. Consideration is given to the impact on the group therapist of his exposure to transferences of all the members and to his own subjective and induced feelings. It is noted that the emotional bombardment to which the therapist is subject is fertile ground for the development of overt and covert counterresistances.