Contrasting psychoanalysis and group therapy, the author points out that the therapeutic instrument in the latter is the effect of the group on the patient. The classical analyst is not a real person as much as he is a catalyst for exploring the unconscious. The therapeutic group is less conducive to the unchecked assertion of the irrational; it therefore excludes to some extent those individuals who tend to such assertion. Analysis reproduces the relationship of parent and child, but the group offers rivals and a weakening of the reliance on omnipotent fantasy. The analyst errs in only appraising his patient in terms of his individual psychic mechanisms; he should take into account the essential characteristics of the group. Personality is also part of a biopsychosocial continuum. The group therapist should be aware of the social structure of the group, the emotional integration between the individual and the group, and the inner psyche.