65th Annual Conference

Saturday, February 23

Early Bird Open Sessions

7:30-8:30 A.M.

Session 219

Intolerable Pain and Aggressive Enactments in Group Treatment

Presenter:

Myrna L. Frank, Ph.D., Private Practice, Highland Park, New Jersey

Aggressive enactments in the group setting tend to be destabilizing for both the therapist and the group members. Events occur with unexpected speed and intensity, leaving all parties, including the enactor, in an unsettled, shaken state. Such events are especially challenging for the group therapist as they have the potential to be destructive to individual members, and even the group as a whole.

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Identify three typical aggressive enactments in therapy group.
2. Apply a psychoanalytic formulation to conceptualize the enactments' prevailing defensive functions.
3. Distinguish between effective and ineffective interventions for aggressive enactments.
 

Course References:

1. Alonso, A. & Swiller, H. I. (1993). Group Therapy in Clinical practice. Macmillan.
2. McWilliams, N. (1994). Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process. Guilford.
3. Van der Kolk, K. (1989): The Compulsion to repeat the trauma: Re-enactment, re-victimization and masochism. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 12 (2), 389-411.