Resistance, Rebellion and Refusal in Groups

Richard M. Billow expands and develops his ideas, first presented in Relational Group Psychotherapy: From Basic Assumptions to Passion. He constructs a theoretically sophisticated, yet experience-near approach to contemporary group therapy. Building on Bion's striking theoretical realignment, replacing the polarity unconscious-conscious with infinite-finite, Billow revises traditional concepts and terms to offer a new model of relational group psychotherapy.In this book he defines the essential therapeutic task: to address the hunger for truth, an appetite stimulated by the group itself. Group members bring infinite potential into the room, but the truth that is developed and realized is bounded by the nature of their interrelationships, individual psychologies and perspectives, as well as by human limitations in processing experience to make it meaningful. How the therapist, along with group members, assess and respond to the need for truth, in the immediate clinical context, create the phenomena of resistance, rebellion, and refusal.The group therapist remains central in the action: evaluating and responding to the truth needs of the various individuals and the group itself and detecting and minimizing the impact of falsity. Using lively clinical anecdotes, Billow demonstrates how the group therapist deals with the dynamic forces of the 3 Rs, operating in four relational modes: diplomacy, integrity, sincerity, and authenticity. This volume is essential reading for individual and group psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, academics, and students of psychoanalytic theory.