Presenter: |
Christine C. Kieffer, PhD |
Chair: |
Bruce S. Wine, PhD |
Self Psychology Page | 22nd Conference Program
Summary
A stable sense of "groupself" develops over time within a psychotherapy group and the development of this groupself has a distinct number of stages of development that lead to deepening levels of empathy and intimacy. The individual patient’s self-object experiences include a relationship to the whole group in a "group-as-a-whole" transference of which the group leader is but a part. Rather than dilute the transference, group psychotherapy has been found to be the source of multiple transference relationships of which the group-as-a-whole transference is a particularly powerful manifestation. Group treatment leads to a strengthening of the self, especially as it enables the self to experience itself as part of a group identity which provides both alterego selfobject experiences as well as a sense of acceptance within a larger community. Group psychotherapy offers a unique opportunity to help the individual experience itself within a selfobject matrix that extends beyond the dyad. Many of our patients either have suffered traumatic group experiences, or have not been provided with adequate models of how to access selfobject matrices outside of a dyadic experience. This paper will attempt to clarify how different selfobject experiences may be highlighted within the groupself at different stages of group development.