Group-Analytic Family Psychotherapy: A Transcultural Perspective

1997

Group-analytic family psychotherapy is a methodology based on a development of Group-analytic theory. The family is defined as a mental field formed by the symbolic plot of `us' in a double relationship: with the cultural history of the family group on one side, and with external groups on the other. The symbolic plot thus has a tribal characteristic which connects the genealogical trees to the ancestral foundation of the group. In cases of psychotic and borderline patients, Group-analytic family psychotherapy has indicated two types of family: those that are embedded in the past, or families that are cut off from the past. After outlining the circumstances of Italian families, this articl…