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Group Analysis
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Encouraging Personal Agency in Analytic Group Therapy

Sy Rubenfeld

National Group Psychotherapy Institute of the Washington School of Psychiatry (WSP), Forum for Psychiatry and the Humanities, WSP

Analytic thought and also group-analytic writers understate or do not comprehend the centrality of human purposiveness. A theory of personal agency in terms of analytic goup therapy is offered to contrast with a prevailing idea that a thinking, feeling, evaluating self oversees reactions. Clinical examples emphasize the usefulness of mobilizing patients' intentions. An example of an active group therapist role is offered that seeks to mobilize members' willingness to explore their enactments of problems in the group. I discuss the rationale and methods involved in this method in terms of my clinical experience and conclusions in line with the theory set forward in the paper.

Key Words: analytic group therapy • experience • patients' intentions • personal agency • theory

Group Analysis, Vol. 36, No. 3, 391-406 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/05333164030363012
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