Abstract

The historical primacy of the one-on-one psychoanalytic approach was established with the founding work of Sigmund Freud. Today many modern analysts consider combining individual analysis with group treatment to be a more effective approach. Promoting the use of group treatment in conjunction with individual psychoanalysis has been one of the major contributions of the modern analysts. This double case study explores the treatment of two patients, one who is in individual psychoanalytic treatment alone and the other who’s treatment is in the combined approach, that is in both individual psychoanalysis and in group treatment with the same therapist. The effectiveness of both these approaches to treatment are investigated and compared in terms of transference, countertransference and resistance. This study seeks to discover the benefits and disadvantages of treatment in these two modalities, in these two cases. A review of the literature reflects the range of opinion about transference, countertransference and resistance in these two approaches. This study generated the following findings. Some individuals cannot tolerate group therapy. A patient needing twinship and positive mothering transferences was vulnerable to narcissistic injury in a group setting. The combined treatment approach allowed a treatment destructive dynamic not to end in treatment failure. The patient was able to separate her positive transference to the analyst from her whole-group negative transference and continue her individual treatment. A patient who was in individual treatment only maintained her idealizing transference with the analyst while she made progress in her work life and in her intimate relationships. Although this patient provided a comparison for this study, the therapist’s interest is stimulated to see how her transference would be impacted by exposure to the therapist in the group treatment.