Some Aspects of Intimacy in an Analytic Therapy Group

Abstract

Abstract Failure to establish or sustain intimacy is a major reason most patients give for entering therapy, and this is especially so for group therapy. Their hope is that through the here-and-now nature of the group, the peer feedback from the group, and the development of interpersonal dynamics withinthe group, an atmosphere will be created in which issues of trust and intimacy can be safely explored and worked through. After a brief review of theliterature on the subject, case material will be used from the presenter's practice, notably excerpts from a session of a long-term (25 years) analytic therapy group illustrating members' attempts to establish and foster intimacy on the one hand, and to defend against and avoid it, on the other. Discussion will focus on the identification of mechanisms that encourage or deter the development of intimacy.