In group psychotherapy, the therapist has an opportunity to observe members reacting to each other and to detect inappropriate responses without personal involvement. Group members involved with each other in a noncritical way become sensitized to such responses also. Patients are seen to displace onto the group as a whole and onto individuals, feelings originating in their family experience. Frequently projective identification also occurs, i.e., a member perceives the group as a whole, or individual members, as having one or more of his own characteristics and reacts to them as if this were so. This is particularly true when the group becomes a superego to the individual, in which case the punitive aspects can be interpreted and modified.