I was first exposed to the power of group therapy as a medical student, sitting in on the daily large patient group run every morning by the consultant psychiatrist on my in-patient ward. My interest in groups continued as a junior trainee psychiatrist, and although I benefitted from excellent supervision, I would have welcomed this book to help me make more sense of the theory underpinning the interventions I was learning to practise.
John Schlapobersky is a leading British group analyst and this book represents his work as a clinician, teacher and trainer of group-analytic psychotherapy in the NHS, private sector and other settings over the past 35 years. It is divided into three sections. The first covers the basic principles of group-analytic psychotherapy, which build the foundation from which the creative work of therapy can develop. These include its developmental nature, its language, speech and silence, and its various structural configurations in terms of frequency, duration and composition of groups. The second section further elaborates on the basic principles of analytic group therapy through the clinical concepts of structure, process and content. The third section explores in more depth the dynamic processes of change – the roles of transference, countertransference, containment, symbolisation, metaphor and meaning. Schlapobersky deftly integrates temporal and spatial dimensions of group-analytic therapy in revealing how its developmental phasic nature – the group progressing through relational, reflective and reparative stages; from monologue to dialogue to discourse; and from cohesiveness to coherence – is intertwined with the group's complex interpersonal dynamics that form the relational matrix at any one time. Engaging clinical vignettes included throughout give voice to discussions on theory and technique and bring the text alive.
It is difficult to pay justice in this brief review to the book's value for not just being one of the most comprehensive and accessible textbooks about group therapy for many years, but also for its wisdom about human nature, the complexities of interpersonal relationships and the dynamics of groups. There is some repetition; however, the elegant prose greatly outweighs any minor irritation at too much cross-referencing to other chapters.
This book will be of use to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals at all stages of their career, and who are involved in any type of group work. It will hopefully inspire others to undertake such work and to become convinced of the centrality of the analytic group method within a model of therapeutic psychiatry that informs the totality of our field.
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