The role of groups during individual development and within the clinical dyad.

The author proposes that group identifications have been under-appreciated by individual psychodynamic psychotherapists in their conceptualization of normative individual development. He identifies the routes by which the child begins to internalize small and large groups during the early years of identity formation. Through individual therapy vignettes, the author suggests modifications to customary technique so that developmental shortcomings in group attachment security can be shored up.

A developmental approach to gifts in long-term group psychotherapy extending from an anniversary ritual.

Therapists have been quietly receiving gifts from patients for many years, but only recently have they been acknowledging and reporting such transactions. Most of the literature on the subject, which has been sparse, has been limited to the individual psychotherapy setting. In this article, we take up the issue within the group psychotherapeutic setting, surveying the literature, and describing our own experience with what became a gift-giving ritual in our long-term open-ended therapy group.

When we give more: reflections on intangible gifts from therapist to patient.

Since Freud's time, psychoanalytically oriented therapists have been wary of accepting gifts from patients, and have also been reluctant to give them to patients. This article first provides a literal definition of the word "gift," and then defines it within the context of the therapeutic relationship. It then reviews the literature on gifts and presents clinical examples describing five categories of offerings from therapist to patient, experienced by the patient as gifts, namely: 1.

Reflections on gifts in the therapeutic setting: the gift from patient to therapist.

Since Freud's time, psychoanalytically oriented therapists have been wary of accepting gifts from patients, although they have done so in some circumstances within the sanctum of their offices. After providing a working definition of the word "gift" for the purposes of this clinical discussion, the article reviews the relevant literature on the subject. The author presents clinical material in which he describes how gifts were presented by patients within the context of their treatment processes.