Group-Analytic Contexts, Issue 80, June 2018

Newsletter – Summer 2018 19
'It's only after you have qualified, that you have a chance of
becoming an analyst'
(Bion, 1987)
This should not mislead somebody to believe, that the engine
can run on intuition from the beginning! At the end of therapy the
therapists desire 'for perfection', 'for gratitude' and 'to be known as a
real person' are well-known difficulties (Gorkin, 1989)
Clinical vignette II
The patient was a painter who painted abstract and very black
compositions. He gained through his three years in group analytic
psychotherapy and left my consciousness till the day one year later, I
suddenly saw him on TV in front of his exhibitions of very colourful
painting in New York. A journalist asked him what had made such a
change in his life that could explain his vivid work. I was prepared to
collect some narcissistic gratification, when he responded: My little
baby-daughter!
Patients’ expressions of gratitude sometimes need analytic
exploration and sometimes plain and simple acceptance. The
importance of 'the capacity to have pleasure in one's patients' pleasure'
(Treurniet, 1997, p. 621) can hardly be overemphasized.
Clinical Vignette III
Recently a young woman at the beginning of a group session declared,
that she had something important to announce. In the excitement that
followed in the group I happened to think, that she might have become
pregnant. Almost bursting into tears and warning that she had never
before said this in public, she stated: I think I am a good person! I am
not perfect, but I am good enough!
I think the patients can come to that recognition, if the therapist
feels good enough to hold a group, which is good enough.
'We all hope that our patients will finish us and forget us, and
that they will find living itself to be the therapy that makes
sense'
(Winnicott, 1968)