Relational Group Psychotherapy

From Basic Assumptions to Passion

Richard Billow

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9781843107392
• eBook ISBN: 9781846423833
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

Integrating cutting-edge relational theory with technique, this volume reveals the deeply personal nature of the intersubjective process of group therapy as it affects the group therapist and other group members. By locating the group therapist's experience in the centre of the action, Richard M. Billow moves away from traditional approaches in group psychotherapy. Instead, he places emphasis on the effect of the therapist's own evolving psychology on what occurs and what does not occur in group psychotherapy.

Building on Bion's early theory of group and his later formulations regarding the structure of thought and the role of affect, this work expands on the present understanding of relational theory and technique. Through the use of clinical anecdotes the author is able to ground theory in the realities of clinical experience making this essential reading for group psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, academics and students of psychoanalytic theory.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Of Related Interest
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Preface: Plan of the Book
• Chapter 1 The Authority of the Group Therapist’s Psychology
• Chapter 2 The Therapist’s Anxiety and Resistance to Group
• Chapter 3 The Basic Conflict: To Think or Anti-think – Applying Bion’s Theory of Thinking in the Group Context
• Chapter 4 Entitled Thinking, Dream Thinking, and Group Process
• Chapter 5 Containing and Thinking – The Three Relational Levels of the Container–Contained
• Chapter 6 Containing the Adolescent Group
• Chapter 7 Bonding in Group – The Therapist’s Contribution
• Chapter 8 Rebellion in Group
• Chapter 9 Primal Affects – Loving, Hating, and Knowing
• Chapter 10 Primal Receptivity – The Passionate Therapist: The Passionate Group
• Bibliography
• Subject Index
• Author Index