Object Relations Group Psychotherapy

Ganzarain, R. (1989).
Object relations group psychotherapy: The group as an object, a tool, and a

training base. International Universities Press, Inc.
Ch 1 Object relations Group Psychotherapy
Object relations
Group is conceptualized as either real/objective or as a patient’s mental object/subjective

cathexis and fantasies
Object has three meanings
1) In correlation with the subject who knows or perceives - the object irrespective of the
wishes of the person. An epistemological truth that has permanent qualities
recognizable by all subjects
2) In correlation with instinct – the object is the thing the instinct seeks for
satisfaction/reach an aim
a. Often described as an oral object providing emotional nurturance
b. Good mother bad mother dialectic
c. The object is contingent in two ways (Freud, 1905)
i. Its relatively interchangeable – no conditions posed on it; i.e. anything
will do as I just need to suck
ii. May become so specific that the instinct, due to the subjects history,
limits its need for a highly specific form i.e. only this pacifier will do, and
no other! (Laplanche and Pontalis, 1973)
d. Today instinct is less sexual and more relationship oriented in its description
3) In correlation with affects – love and hate dialectic
Object Relations – describes the subjects mode of relating to the world as an entire outcome of
a particular personality organization, of particular fantasied apprehensions of objects, and of
specific types of defenses
Relationships – an interrelationship involving not only the wat the subject constitutes his objects
but also the way these objects can shape the subject’s actions (Laplanche and Pontalis, 1973)
 The object (projected or introjected) actually acts upon the subject either persecuting or
reassuring him (Klein)
 People do not perceive objects the same way
 People react to and interact with an actual other but also the internal other which is the
psychic representation of a person
Object Relations in Groups
Groups regress to primitive levels of mental function

 Bion (1961) people enter groups with psychoticlike anxieties shaking one’s ego passing
through fear of annihilation of their own self (schizoparanoid anxieties) and later for the
destruction of their loved objects due to surmounting their hostilities (Depressive fears)
Group members can be transitional objects
Satellite members - Members who have left can be mentally brought back as well as those
connected to group members can become ghost “group members”
Contributions of Object Relations to Groups
1) Central focus on the relationship between the self and the object whereby the anxieties
about losing the self or loved objects is placed within the conceptual frame of the
psychoticlike primitive fears, related emotions and early defense mechanisms
2) Understanding of the crucial interactions at the boundaries between self and object
helping to define dialectics of:
a. Internal and external
b. Self and object
c. Fantasy and reality
d. Introjection and projection that blur boundaries of the above three
3) Develops the idea of role
Within groups projective identification become rejected parts of the person creating roles in the
group such as the spokesperson or scape goat (Horwitz, 1983)
Kohut (Self Psychology) and Klein present two different Object Relations Theories
 Kohut – concept of the tragic man

o Attempts to do away with guilt and envy
o Legitimizes need for self objects – not selfish or grandiose
o Detractors against Kohut claim he Ignored the existence of brutal sadistic violent
destructiveness of man (Rush, 1982) and patients own responsibility in shaping
their destiny
 Klein – Guilt image of man
o Guilt (the depressive position) and envy (the schizoparanoid position) are
central
o Sees the need for one to make a distinction between the self and self objects to
overcome confusion
o Attempts to integrate the self to reduce splitting and achieving full use of
patient’s total personality endowment
Ch 2 A Comparative Study of Bion’s Concepts about Groups

Bion
 applied Klein’s concepts of psychotic anxieties and early defense mechanisms to the
group
 Rejects Lewin’s view to explain groups (that was based on Gestalt school)
 Complements System’s theory
Goal of group – to work through primitive group defenses against common psychotic anxiety
Bion describes why groups do not behave in a sensible way via asserting in every group there
are two groups:
 Working Group – the real task of the group, scientific in spirit, conscious of time and the
process of learning and developing
o Verbal communication is used
 Basic Assumptions Group – oriented towards fantasy and not reality and makes less
rational use of verbal communication. They are a defensive reaction to psychotic
anxiety
o Dependency
o Fight/flight
o pairing
Kleinian Theories Applied to Group Psychotherapy
Groups regress to early stages of mental functioning whereby psychotic anxieties and early
defenses are reactivated – projective identification and splitting
Interpretation is appropriate when it seems both obvious and unobserved; first wait and see if
the group gets it and if they do not only then intervene (Bion, 1961)
 Yalom attacks bion for his apparent monopolization of therapeutic functionings in the
group (Yalom, 1975)
Combines the preoedipal and oedipal unconscious content and adds the sphinx as a key concept
in the oedipal myth
Lewin’s Filed Theory in Group Psychotherapy
Interpersonal/interactional approach personified by Yalom (1975)
 Only uses group interventions when primary task of group is being avoided
All behaviors change the state of the “field” which is defined as group forces/feedback but is
more generally defined as the person’s life space.
 Different parts of a life space are interdependent like the foreground and background in
visual perception
 Does not consider fantasies or dreams
 Focused on the here-and-now
 Do not consider as a central focus: deep regressions, group negative transference, or
psychotic group anxiety
General Systems Theory and Group Psychotherapy
A method of analysis that lists the essential components of a system and describes their
reciprocal influences within such totality
It is a skeleton that needs to have psychoanalytic views on object relations to fill in the meat
Emphasizes how boundaries are constantly crossed from the inside and outside of a living
system in a dynamic holistic interaction
CH. 3 General Systems and Object Relations Theory: Their

Usefulness in Group Psychotherapy
The Decider Subsystem
Ego – the decider of the organism (Menninger, 1963)
 Executive subsystem that receives information inputs from all the other subsytems and
transmit to them information outputs that control the entire system (Miller, 1971)
 Deciding process – discovery of purpose of goals, analysis, synthesis, implementation
Klein – argued against Freud; we are not dealing with ego apparatuses mastering id drives but
with an infantile ego relating to good and bad, part and whole, parental objects,a potential
person relating to other persons with a constant interplay of projection and introjection
between them. The whole of this must be worked through in the transference relation to the
analyst (Guntrip, 1967)
Two basic levels of decider subsystems interact:
 Older – primitive; old childish self-representations leading to primitive anxieties

 Newer – sophisticated open to new behaviors and to renewed perception of old objects
These two levels mean there are two perceptions at any given time that may be activated an
inactivated
By working through the depressive position towards a newer subsystem we enable our ability to
trust our own capacities and to love objects above and beyond of hating them
The Boundary Subsystem
Function:
1) Holding together the components (splitting)

2) Protecting them from the environment (paranoid anxieties)
3) Controlling the permeability through permitting entry or excluding information and
matter-energy exchange (projection/introjection)
Exploring depressive state – discovering true boundaries and painful limitations
Four Group Aspects:
 Therapist, other members, group as a whole, the outgroup

o Outgroup – a holding container for projection
o Therapist – to keep the boundary controls oriented towards the primary task, to
prevent the exclusion of content, actively bringing different exchanges into the
group
Discussion and Summary
 GST is like a checklist

 Makes possible to operate within multiple factors
“There is the land of the living and the land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival,
the only meaning (Thornton Wilder, The bridge of San Luis Rey)
Ch. 4 The Bad Mother Group

Group is a maternal object for its members
 Idealized good mother – protected by denial and splitting

 Bad mother –
o Demanding – group values, no freedom to be one’s self (Bion, 1961)
o Devouring – loss of individuality (Freud, 1921) and taking away of
credits/possessions
o Lacking reciprocity – group doesn’t need individual members to survive
o Intrusive – inquires about secrets, private affairs, attempting to influence them
and make them public
Literature Review
Three types of unconscious perceptions of the group
1) Good parent
2) Good father who defends mother
3) Bad parent
Two maternal transferences
1) Group brings up Harsh preodipal image

2) Therapist seen as good all giving omnipotent mother
Three fears of bad mother
1) Erupting rage
2) Being swallowed/smothered
3) Starvation and abandonment
Group functions as good mother via
1) Life giving belonging to group

2) Confirming and being worthy to belong to group
3) Sustaining being in the group itself
4) Accepting as everything can be expressed in group
Band Mother-Group Transference
Oral Conflicts
 Therapist Absences
 The arrival of a new patient
Sadomasochistic Conflicts – loss of individual ID, being corrupted or brainwashed
Sexual Conflicts – fantasies about therapists
Discussion
Idealization creates stability and mastery over envy with defense mechanisms and can thus be
sued therapeutically but should be phased out slowly based on an object relations perspective
Anti Group – see Kindle

Criticized Faulkes idealization of groups especially in light of his times – a German escaping to
England from Nazi Germany.
The anti-Group is a phenomenon that, in a cyclical way, degrades the entire group with
criticisms, non-participation, etc. ultimately causing the group to collapse
One possible explaination for the anti-group is the failed wish of having a meaningful close
relationship with another person (the therapist) and feels like he’s given a second class solution
– the group

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Ganzarain, R. (1989).

Object relations group psychotherapy: The group as an object, a tool, and a

Ch 1 Object relations Group Psychotherapy

Group is conceptualized as either real/objective or as a patient’s mental object/subjective

Object has three meanings

Object Relations in Groups

Groups regress to primitive levels of mental function

Group members can be transitional objects

Contributions of Object Relations to Groups

 Kohut – concept of the tragic man

Ch 2 A Comparative Study of Bion’s Concepts about Groups

Kleinian Theories Applied to Group Psychotherapy

Lewin’s Filed Theory in Group Psychotherapy

Interpersonal/interactional approach personified by Yalom (1975)

General Systems Theory and Group Psychotherapy

CH. 3 General Systems and Object Relations Theory: Their

The Decider Subsystem

Ego – the decider of the organism (Menninger, 1963)

Two basic levels of decider subsystems interact:

 Older – primitive; old childish self-representations leading to primitive anxieties

The Boundary Subsystem

1) Holding together the components (splitting)

Exploring depressive state – discovering true boundaries and painful limitations

Four Group Aspects:

 Therapist, other members, group as a whole, the outgroup

Discussion and Summary

 GST is like a checklist

Ch. 4 The Bad Mother Group

 Idealized good mother – protected by denial and splitting

Three types of unconscious perceptions of the group

Two maternal transferences

1) Group brings up Harsh preodipal image

Three fears of bad mother

Group functions as good mother via

1) Life giving belonging to group

Sadomasochistic Conflicts – loss of individual ID, being corrupted or brainwashed

Sexual Conflicts – fantasies about therapists

Anti Group – see Kindle

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