Sibling witnessing in the horizontal axis. Response to 46th Foulkes Lecture by Miriam Berger: May 2023

Abstract

Miriam Berger’s fascinating and poignant lecture (Berger, 2023) has drawn attention to a very important area of relating—the act of bearing witness. As she points out, witnessing belongs in the horizontal axis, and it begins in the sibling matrix.

In my response I will consider the importance of sibling witnessing in the family and its function in both individual and group therapy, illustrating this with a powerful example of sibling witnessing in my weekly therapy group.

Keywords

sibling transference sibling matrix witnessing horizontality sibling witnessing

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References

Agger

(1988) Psychoanalytic perspectives on sibling relationships. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 8: 3–30.

Berger

(2023) Facts matter: The analytic group between witnessing and horizontality [46th Annual Foulkes Lecture]. Group Analysis 56(4): 445–458.

Foulkes

(1948) Introduction to Group Analytic Psychotherapy. London: William Heinemann Medical Books Ltd.

Parker

(2020) A Group-Analytic Exploration of the Sibling Matrix: How Siblings Shape our Lives. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Stolper

(2022) Sibling Witnessing in Analytic Group Therapy. In: Ashuach

Berman

(eds) Sibling Relations and the Horizontal Axis in Theory and Practice: Contemporary Group Analysis, Psychoanalysis and Organization Consultancy. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 146–156.