Difficult Topics in Group Psychotherapy: My Journey from Shame to Courage

by Jerome Gans

Overview

This book contains eleven selected papers on difficult topics group therapists encounter in their work. Based on the author's forty years in the field, these papers include the topics of shame, courage, hostility, combined individual and group therapy, money, indirect communication, difficult patients, silence, and the missed session. Written from a psychodynamic orientation with a relational emphasis, they pay special attention to countertransference. An autobiographical introduction to each paper discusses what experiences have led the author to write on each topic. These introductions honor the role that personal experience has played in the evolution of Dr Gan's therapeutic presence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781855757691
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/31/2010
Series:	The New International Library of Group Analysis
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Preface , Introduction , Shame , Hostility , Broaching the subject of group therapy , Money , Indirect communication , Difficult patients , Silence , The missed session , Courage , Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

This major book, a collection of incomparable essays on group psychotherapy, is a true marvel. It offers a new way of thinking and will have a profound impact on beginning therapists as well as experienced teachers and supervisors. Therapists who treat individual patients will benefit as well. Dr. Gans describes universal aspects of group treatment, situations in which the therapist feels baffled and frustrated. Instead of being the ‘difficult patient’, he examines his own personal experience, the very essence of the therapist. We are inspired by his honesty and courage.

Dr Gans discusses what we, the readers, think we know; themes of coutertransference, shame, hostility, growth and change; and we get in touch with the excitement we had forgotten as well as quiet and meaningful reflection. The patients and the therapist share the same interests and concerns in love and work and Dr. Gans shares his concerns—which include his conflict over the murder of a neighbor and understanding the harshness of a parent.

His theoretical framework is solid and implicit. Dr. Gans is a beautiful writer. We never get lost in jargon. The words sparkle. This is a book we shall reread many times. Lucky patients and lucky readers.

Bea Liebenberg

"What a refreshing and reassuring book for group psychotherapists! This collection of Jerome Gans' most important papers confirms his unique ability not only to pinpoint the difficulties that beset us all as group therapists but to bring humour, wisdom and compassion to the discussion. Resolutely determined to leave behind the strictures of theory, he confronts the deepest human paradoxes in which our weaknesses are often our strengths and our difficulties are vital signposts of development. The book pulsates with a sense of Yalom's 'universality': we are all in it together, therapists and patients alike. Readers will learn and enjoy, returning to their groups with renewed curiosity and courage."

Morris Nitsun

"Jerome Gans has written the book that no one else has had the courage to write. He addresses the underbelly of group therapy—both of the therapist and of the member. No education of psychotherapy is complete without this knowledge. Every practitioner and trainee should read this book. No other textbook can substitute."

Elaine (Lonergan) Cooper

"Gans, a distinguished fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, draws on more than 40 years of personal experience as a group therapist to explore the themes of shame, hostility, courage and the relationship between patients and therapists as they play out in group psychotherapy."

Rochester Review

"Gans, a distinguished fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, draws on more than 40 years of personal experience as a group therapist to explore the themes of shame, hostility, courage and the relationship between patients and therapists as they play out in group psychotherapy."

"Jerome Gans has written the book that no one else has had the courage to write. He addresses the underbelly of group therapy--both of the therapist and of the member. No education of psychotherapy is complete without this knowledge. Every practitioner and trainee should read this book. No other textbook can substitute."

"What a refreshing and reassuring book for group psychotherapists! This collection of Jerome Gans' most important papers confirms his unique ability not only to pinpoint the difficulties that beset us all as group therapists but to bring humour, wisdom and compassion to the discussion. Resolutely determined to leave behind the strictures of theory, he confronts the deepest human paradoxes in which our weaknesses are often our strengths and our difficulties are vital signposts of development. The book pulsates with a sense of Yalom's 'universality': we are all in it together, therapists and patients alike. Readers will learn and enjoy, returning to their groups with renewed curiosity and courage."

“This major book, a collection of incomparable essays on group psychotherapy, is a true marvel. It offers a new way of thinking and will have a profound impact on beginning therapists as well as experienced teachers and supervisors. Therapists who treat individual patients will benefit as well. Dr. Gans describes universal aspects of group treatment, situations in which the therapist feels baffled and frustrated. Instead of being the ‘difficult patient’, he examines his own personal experience, the very essence of the therapist. We are inspired by his honesty and courage.

Dr Gans discusses what we, the readers, think we know; themes of coutertransference, shame, hostility, growth and change; and we get in touch with the excitement we had forgotten as well as quiet and meaningful reflection. The patients and the therapist share the same interests and concerns in love and work and Dr. Gans shares his concerns—which include his conflict over the murder of a neighbor and understanding the harshness of a parent.

His theoretical framework is solid and implicit. Dr. Gans is a beautiful writer. We never get lost in jargon. The words sparkle. This is a book we shall reread many times. Lucky patients and lucky readers.

From the Publisher