In this article, I will present the contribution of the conductor’s self-disclosure of negative countertransference in group analytic psychotherapy and its advantage over interpretation in the working through of projective identification that leads to a therapeutic impasse. I will also discuss the issues of timing of self-disclosure and spontaneity versus judicious self-disclosure. The presented ideas will be demonstrated through vignettes from analytic groups that I conduct.
AronL. (1996) A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
2.
AronL. (2006) ‘Analytic Impasse and the Third: Clinical implications of Intersubjectivity Theory’, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis87: 349–68.
3.
CohenB.D.SchermerV.L. (2001) ‘Therapist Self Disclosure in Group Psychotherapy from an Intersubjective and Self Psychological Standpoint’, Group25 (1/2): 41–57.
4.
BionW.R. (1961) Experiences in Groups. New York: Basic Books.
5.
BionW.R. (1973) Bion’s Brazilian lectures 1. Sao Paulo and London: Karnac.
6.
BillowR.M. (2011) ‘It’s All About “Me”: On the Group Leader’s Psychology’, Group Analysis44(3): 296–314.
7.
BrombergP.M. (1993) ‘Shadow and Substance: A Relational Perspective on Clinical Process’, Psychoanalytic Psychology10: 147–68.
8.
FoulkesS.H. (1948) Introduction to Group Analytic Psychotherapy. London: Karnac, 1983.
9.
FoulkesS.H. (1964) Therapeutic Group Analysis. London: George Allen and Unwin.
10.
FriedmanR. (2015) ‘A Soldier’s Matrix: A Group Analytic View of Societies in War’, Group Analysis48(3): 239–57.
11.
GrossmarkR. (2007) ‘The Edge of Chaos: Enactment, Disruption and Emergence in Group Psychotherapy’, Psychoanalytic Dialogues17: 479–99.
GrossmarkR. (2015) ‘Repairing the Irreparable—The Flow of Enactive Engagement in Group Psychotherapy’, in RobertG.FredW. (eds) The One and the Many: Relational Approaches to Group Psychotherapy, pp. 75–91. New York and London: Routledge.
14.
Marodak. (1999) Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation: Emotional Engagement in the Analytic Process. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
15.
MermelsteinJ. (2000) ‘The Role of Concordance and Complementarity in Psychoanalytic Treatment’, Psychoanalytic Psychology17: 706–29.
16.
MitchellS.A. (1998) ‘The Emergence of Features of the Analyst’s Life’, Psychoanalytic Dialogues8: 187–94.
17.
ProdgersA. (1991) ‘Countertransference: The Conductor’s Emotional Response within the Group Setting’, Group Analysis24(4): 389–407.
18.
RackerH. (1968) Transference and Countertransference. New York: International Universities Press.
19.
RafaelsenL. (1996) ‘Projections, Where do They Go?’, Group Analysis29(2): 143–58.
20.
RenikO. (1995) ‘The ideal of the anonymous analyst and the problem of self-disclosure’, Psychoanalitic Quarterly64: 466–95.
21.
RogersC. (1987) ‘On Putting it into Words: The Balance between Projective Identification and Dialogue in the Group’, Group Analysis20(2): 99–107.
22.
SaravayS.M. (1973) ‘A psychoanalytic Theory of Group Development’, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy28(4): 481–507.
23.
SymingtonN. (1983) ‘The Analyst’s Act of Freedom as Agent of Therapeutic Change’, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis10(30): 283–91.
24.
YalomI.D.LeszszM. (2005) The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, 5th edition.New York: Basic Books.
25.
WinnicottD. (1949) ‘Hate in the Countertransference’, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis30: 69–74.
