New ideas on unconscious defences in groups

The author begins by commenting on transference and countertransference in the psychoanalytical approach to group psychotherapy in order to contrast their classical meaning with the outcome of some recent theoretical perspectives of group psychology proper, such as: transference relationships without an object, secondary partial transference, ethnological anonymous persecutory transference. The Author’s proposition is that within the small therapeutic group those aspects of one’s own identity which are not regarded as belonging to one’s own Self also contain early cultural inputs, i.e. well defined ethnical products which emerge regardless of each individual’s history. Therefore, the Author states that within the group, mind processes are not necessarily regressive insofar as group interaction does not allow participants to keep their usual Self representations. This occurs when group interaction is aimed at comparing Self representations with one another. This being the case, group members are compelled to produce defences that are different from repression, projection and negation, since the continuous feedback process blocks them. .

Keywords: Group psychotherapy, interactive group, transference, cultural models, therapist’s mental activity, Self/non-Self interaction

Ferdinando Vanni, Nuove concezioni sulle difese inconsce nei gruppi in "GRUPPI" 1/2012, pp 11-25, DOI: 10.3280/GRU2012-001002