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March 17, 1949. GROUP THERAPY ON PSYCHOANALYTIC PRINCIPLES. Walter Briehl, M.D.
The author prefers the term, Group Therapy on Psychoanalytic Principles, to Group Analysis. The latter should be limited to individual therapy. Group therapy is not to be considered a substitute for individual therapy.
Group work can be carried out on psychoanalytic principles. As Freud states in Group Psychology, 'The collective mind consists of no instances which do not exist in the individual, namely, libido, identifications, Oedipal structure'. In addition, one works constantly with transference and resistance. Some forms of resistance to group therapy were pointed out. Several case histories were given, illustrating particularly effective mechanisms which gave symptomatic insight to neurotic characters and narcissistic personalities.
The technique of group therapy has value for the transitional training of students from psychiatric to psychoanalytic methods; countertransferences, therapeutic aptitude and empathy may be observed in group work. Group therapy has a contribution to make to The Nature of the Therapeutic Process which is part of a symposium on The Evaluation of Therapeutic Results.