Working with spiritual and religious themes in group therapy.
International Journal of Group Psychotherapy January 1, 1998 J R Jacques
Psychoanalytic therapy groups can function as spiritual communities that deepen the understanding of group transference. Beyond repeating family-of-origin dynamics, group-as-a-whole dynamics include a spiritual dimension. Clinical vignettes from a midphase group illustrate working with spiritual and religious themes psychodynamically by treating them like dreams. Amplifying and interpreting symbolic themes guides members through transference to their family of origin, where they access childhood memories and the transitional space of religious experience in which they created God representations to solve self and object dilemmas. This working-through process facilitates integrating or transforming new self and God images.