Groups and Gender: The Effects of a Masculine Gender Deficit

Abstract

Should analysts consider gender distribution when forming a group, or should they assume that the sex of the participants and therapist will not significantly affect group process? This question has received little attention in the psychoanalytic literature despite the fact that it provokes considerable thought and discussion among psychotherapists. This article explores the effects of a specific gender distribution in an analytic group: one male analyst conducting a group of women. This gender configuration complicates the working-through of psychic bisexuality. It can set the stage for genital and especially pre-genital fantasies deleterious to the process by a phallic regression of the group towards a struggle for control and power. Unless an all female or all male group is favoured, an even gender distribution seems necessary to allow for the free expression of masculine and feminine, maternal and paternal, identifications.