Introduction to Group Analytic Psychotherapy
- Author:
Foulkes, M.D. William Heinemann. 21s.
This book is a very straightforward and practical exposition of the ” group-analytic” technique which the author employs. There is just sufficient discussion of the rationale underlying his theratherapeutic approach to stimulate the reader’s interest, and, at the end, there is a useful comparison of this procedure with those described by other authors. The bulk of the book consists of an account of the technique, together with a commendable array of illustrative examples from actual cases and group situations. In particular, the accounts of aspects of the ” Northfield Experiment ” make fascinating reading.
The author expressly disclaims that his method is meant to supersede orthodox psychoanalysis: it is rather a complementary approach which touches upon the patient’s adjustment to social realities in a way which the privacy of the individual analytic procedure inevitably misses. The method employs, in a group setting, the same ” tools “? free association, understanding of unconscious mechanisms and motives, and understanding of interpersonal relationships (=transference)?as does orthodox psychoanalysis. In addition, however, the therapist is faced with the necessity of becoming a member of the group as well as its leader or conductor. He has to bring himself into a more socially real and less artificial relation to his patients than does the ordinary analyst. The three practical principles on which the method is based are {a) active participation by the members: (b) communication in a permissive atmosphere: and (c) observation in a social setting. It is on the significance of the third of these that Dr Foulkes claims that his method has scientific as well as therapeutic value?a claim which must be regarded as well founded.
The emphasis laid on the importance of communication, as the essential therapeutic desideratum, suggests that this procedure is in the direct line of therapeutic advance and will stand the test of time. Barriers to communication, both intrapersonal and social, have a wide significance for mental health, and the lessons to be learnt from the group-analysis of neurotic patients will certainly be found applicable in wider fields of human relations.
There will, no doubt, be resistance on the part of some therapists to the use of the group method. Inasmuch as the therapist unconsciously accepts those neurotic dissociations which the community regards as normal, he will find himself faced with ” barriers to communication” in a group. For as a group develops a capacity for free communication among its members, it becomes healthy, and is led to gain insight into the social neurosis pari passu with the gain in insight and adjustment of the individuals composing it. A group will challenge ” normal ” social assumptions with inescapable force and compel the therapist to reflect on his own unconscious acceptance of normality. Dr Foulkes does not draw this distinction between normality and health. He says that a basic law of group dynamics is that ” collectively (the members) constitute the very norm from which, individually, they deviate” : and that the community ” itself determines what is normal, socially accepted behaviourBut is it not this unconscious ” social acceptance ” of taboos, a barrier to communication, which is one of the ultimate causes of individual neurosis ? A group, progressing along the lines indicated in this book, is reaching toward a much higher degree of mental health than is ” normal ” in our society. Such a criticism as this, however, obviously contains more praise than blame: an ” Introduction “, focussing on a practical therapeutic approach, would have become unbalanced by any more detailed discussion of the work’s implications, many of which will be evident enough to the interested reader.
Apart from its intrinsic interest as a contribution to social psychiatry, the book will provide a fund of reassurance and encouragement to therapists who are new to the practice of group techniques? even if their personal experience of psychoanalysis is less than the author would regard as ideal. It is modest, in spite of the author’s obvious enthusiasm. It is not difficult to read. And if, in the end, one is left with a suspicion that one has been invited to make a personal re-orientation towards problems of neurosis, apart from learning a new therapeutic method, doubtless the author will be satisfied. J.R.M.
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