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After reviewing some of the literature, the author demonstrates by clinical
examples the ways in which transference of patients, seen once or twice weekly individually, was modified by attendance in a therapeutic group. One borderline psychotic shrank from transference when alone with his therapist, fearing emotional closeness and dependency; in a group he placed himself on the periphery and gradually related to his fellow members, or to the group as a whole. A woman, strongly ambivalent toward her mother, made the therapist her good father, then the good mother and another member of the group the hostile, depriving mother. While she verbalized freely in individual sessions, group interaction was at first blocked by her silences. However, the cohesiveness of other members put pressure on her to work out her transference and thereby gain insight. A young man had difficulty in resolving his dependence upon the therapist in individual sessions, fearing his own hostility which was transferred from a masculine mother. In the group, after first reacting aggressively toward other members and then toward the therapist, he realized that his transference was to a masculine, dominating mother.