Group Analysis
GROUP ANALYSIS AS A THERAPEUTIC METHOD
Group Analysis was introduced by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst S.H. Foulkes, in England, in 1940 and is a method of group psychotherapy, which connects group processes with the development of the individual, utilizing the group as a therapeutic tool. It gives a primary role to social interaction and proposes a method of treatment, based on which the patient, through multiple and varied relationships, can “in action” strengthen his/her Ego, but also change, at will, his behavior, insofar as he wishes to harmonize with “the normal attitude or norm, which the group collectively constitutes and from which he/she as an individual deviates” (Foulkes, 1948, p. 29). As a therapeutic method, it is more interested in the prospect of personal change and specifically in which direction and by what means he will ensure it.
Characteristics and Framework of the Group Analytic Approach
The following characteristics of the Group Analytic Approach match the needs of patients with serious mental disorders and, consequently, facilitate their integration into the therapeutic framework and, subsequently, the promotion of therapeutic changes.
a) Focus on the healthy part of the Ego.
b) Focus on the structural elements of the group.
c) Ego training in action.
d) Multiple transference.
e) Multiple levels of functioning and communication
f) Corrective emotional experience.
A basic prerequisite for utilizing the therapeutic potential of the Group-Analytic approach is the creation of conditions of safety and the existence of a broader framework-organization. The influence of the broader framework-organization on individual activities is a factor of decisive importance in the success of the therapy. I.K. Tsegos (1985) points out that the quality of the structure and Matrix of each therapeutic activity, e.g. an Analytic Group, “depends directly on the quality of the structure and Matrix of the entire organization” and is further reflected in the degree of safety experienced by this group.