Psychoanalytic group therapy

Psychoanalytic group therapy combines the factors of change inherent in group therapy with the psychoanalytic focus on change through insight into the unconscious. The therapist interprets the behavior of the clients, and the content of discussion, looking for patterns that will reveal intrapsychic conflicts or maladaptive defenses. The idea is that revealing these processes to the otherwise unaware clients will reduce their anxiety (in the psychodynamic sense), free up the psychic energy that had been used to keep unmanageable ideas unconscious, and allow the clients to actively engage in new, productive behaviors. The group format is useful in that members may elicit content from each other in their interactions that may not arise in an individual psychoanalytic therapeutic setting due to issues of transference and countertransference.