Personal pronouns as indicators of interpersonal relations in psychoanalytic group therapy
Cierpka, M.; Ohlmeier, D.; Schaumburg, C.
Psychotherapie Psychosomatik Medizinische Psychologie 30(5): 212-217
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0937-2032 PMID: 7422793 Document Number: 155104
The 2 segments of study referred to in this article show that there is a close interconnection of the verbal transactions in psychoanalytic group therapy with regard to the use of personal pronouns when the individual members of the group address each other during psychotherapy and that this connection increases as group therapy proceeds. This phenomenon is ascribed to the unconscious dynamics of cohesion in a therapeutic group. Cohesion is an absolute necessity for the creation of a common group ego and it is an important therapeutic variable within the concept of the group as a whole. The personal pronouns show, on account of their ability to describe interpersonal relations within a group, a new possibility to objectivate unconscious phenomena in a psychoanalytic group therapy by means of linguistic analysis and statistical methods.