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Group therapists and theorists often try so hard to distinguish their modality from individual analytic therapy that group treatment seems to become alien and dubious. This paper is intended to link individual and group practice rather than to distinguish between them.
It may help to begin by referring to several core analytic concepts used in individual practice. The first task there is to help the patient talk about anything that concerns him, with the hope that over time he will be able to speak more and more freely. That is, the analyst attempts to have the analysand free associate. This is the first basic concept of analysis. This provides the raw material for analysis.
Soon enough, in the process, one notices disturbing behavior that cuts the time available for the work or stops it: cancellations, lateness, silences, failure to pay, sleepiness, forgetting, and so on, the familiar repertoire. Greenson (1967) lists some two dozen such types and qualities of behavior which constitute our second concept: resistance.
The third basic concept in analysis is defense. Defense clearly differs from resistance although they are often used interchangeably in analytic literature and discussion. What is the difference? As becomes clear from an examination of Greenson's extended list, resistance is a concept that describes behavior or some quality of behavior. Defense, on the other hand, can be seen as a mental