Group Analysis in the Land of Milk and Honey

Description

Group Analysis in the Land of Milk and Honey is a collection of beautifully written clinical essays by group analysts in Israel - a society which suffers from chronic war and violence. Israeli group conductors share their experience and their special skills concerning the reflection of terror and existential anxiety in their group-analytic therapy groups. The topics range from the influence of society on the individual, the nature of the "group", combined individual and group therapy, groups with mentally ill and elderly patients, and coping with aggressive patients and the self-destructive processes that are ubiquitous in a society threatened with extinction. These group analysts discuss breaking of boundaries, "democracy in action", leadership, paternalism and fanatic identifications. The special place of Shoah survivors and of Arab and Jewish conflict make this book unique. The book conveys both the trauma and the creativity of Israeli society. The editors, Dr Robi Friedman and Yael Doron, represent different generations within the IIGA - the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS SERIES EDITOR'S FOREWORD INTRODUCTION PART I THEORY CHAPTER ONE The "ethical envelope" of the analytic group: some thoughts about democratic values implicit in group analysis CHAPTER TWO What is the "group entity" in group analysis? CHAPTER THREE Leader, society, sacrifice CHAPTER FOUR Beyond Oedipus in group analysis: the sacrifice of boys in the social unconscious of the Israeli people CHAPTER FIVE The group analysis of the Akeda: the worst and the best feelings in the matrix CHAPTER SIX The black hole in the social unconscious: a collective defence against shared fears of annihilation CHAPTER SEVEN The immune system and group analysis: communication between "self" and "non-self" CHAPTER EIGHT The group "not-me" PART II PRACTICE CHAPTER NINE On arrivals and departures in slow-open group analytic groups CHAPTER TEN The group, the boundaries, and between CHAPTER ELEVEN Combined therapy as a clinical tool: special focus on difficult patients CHAPTER TWELVE "Is there hope for change at my age?" CHAPTER THIRTEEN "I still want to be relevant": on placing an older person in an analytic therapy group with younger people CHAPTER FOURTEEN The patient, the group, and the conductor coping with subtle aggression in an analytic group CHAPTER FIFTEEN Foreigner in your motherland, foreigner in your chosen homeland: Jewish cultural identity PART III APPLICATIONS OF GROUP ANALYSIS CHAPTER SIXTEEN Group analysis goes to academia: therapeutic approach and professional identity in graduate studies of psychology CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Working with a multi-cultural group in times of war: three metaphors of motion and mobility CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Co-constructing a common language: aspects of group supervision for the multi-disciplinary staff of a psychiatric ward CHAPTER NINETEEN Analytic group for the children of the Holocaust and the second generation: a construction of belonging to the injured self through mutual recognition processes CHAPTER TWENTY The personal, group, and social aspects of dreaming APPENDIX The co-creation of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis: notes from the archives INDEX