The Incest Barrier And Psychoanalytic Group Process

Abstract

Because of the regressive pull of group dynamics, patients in psycho-analytic group therapy are inclined to express primary process modes of energy discharge and thought formation. Energy levels are high and oscillate randomly with marked mobility of object cathexis. Thinking tends to be affect-laden and instinct-dominated. The development of group associational and symbolic content is similar to dreams and dream work. An educated listener may perceive in an elaborated group theme the revival of pubertal fantasies, which themselves had their start through those “infantile sexual researches that were abandoned in childhood”, (Freud 1905, page 226). The group theme, like the dream, is generated by some stimuli left over from the communicative residue of the previous session in combination with the effect of the current group engagement process as each member experiences arrival-on-the-scene (or re-entry) phenomena.