Bion’s Thinking on Psychotic and Non-Psychotic Functioning Applied to Work with an Adolescent Psychotherapy Group

The appetite for group work in public health services often appears to wax and wane. At times of high demands on services group work can be a useful resource in terms of reaching more clients within a single session. This suggests a rather disparaging view of the importance of group work but, unfortunately, is a fact of life when financial and other constraints are placed on mental health services despite the growth in demand for such services. Some thoughts about group life: Freud (1921, p. 66): “... and in the development of mankind as a whole ... love alone acts as a civilizing factor in the sense it brings a change from egoism to altruism.” Bion later concurred with Freud in terms of the creative capacity of the group over and above the individual when he wrote of group life as being an opportunity to move from “narcissism to social-lism ... I consider that group mental life is essential to the full life of the individual, quite apart from any temporary or specific need, and that satisfaction of this need has to be sought through membership of a group” (1961, p. 160). He also wrote: “The whole point of looking at a group is that it changes the field of study to include phenomena that cannot be studied outside the group” (p. 24). And Garland: “The capacity to reflect before acting is the foundation stone of growth, development and creativity in both the small group and in society itself” (2010, p. 4).