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This paper explores the importance and impact of the analytic group leader's emotional availability on group dynamics. The case studies brought forward by the author demonstrate that emotional learning and the meeting of maturational needs happen as a direct consequence of therapeutic responses to patients' feeling states. The complex social and emotional environment of a psychoanalytic group becomes therapeutic when the leader assumes the role of custodian of the group's culture. If the leader cultivates one's own emotional availability and receptivity, he educates his patients to do the same for themselves and others.