PALABRAS CLAVE

Aprendizaje, grupoanálisis

KEY WORDS

Training, group-analysis

It is well-known group psychotherapy in its modern form, developed from the reconstructive and reparative forces of World War II. Valiant efforts to use group forces, "by the group they were broken, by the group they should be mended", in mental hospitals were made. Moreno gave birth to psychodrama, Trigant Burrow to group analysis. These were the harbengers of work to come.

Group psychotherapy, small groups, large groups, therapeutic community, erupted in British military psychiatry. Necessity gave birth to Bion's leaderless small groups, when a British Army had to reform post-Dunkirk catastrophe. John Rickman drew on his experience as a Quaker doctor, a shrewd social observer in a Russian village during World War I where he learnt how communities self-regulate. Wilfred Bion drew on his experiences of loss and recovery of morale while serving in the tank core in that same war. Foulkes may have derived some ideas of the importance of matrix and communicative networks whilst he was a telephone operator in the German army. His future colleague Norbert Elias lived through the perils of repairing broken wires in the front line. These were the experiences that lay the ground for the dynamic psychiatry of World War II. We know now from Harrison's (2000) researches of Northfield, of the disputes over what methods treatment and training should be used. Harold Bridger and Tom Main against Michael Foulkes and his supporters. Foulkes, the only recognised and trained psychoanalyst, gets seminars of psychoanalysis and group psychotherapy, but was seen by his opponents as insufficiently radical: a thesis re-ignited by Dalal 50 years later. (Dalal 1998).

So, when and how was group-analytic training born? The Institute of Group Analysis was founded in 197.. Before that, Foulkes and James Anthony had formed the Group-Analytic Society in 1952. At first it was closed group of founder members, which in 1955 was enlarged. Full members were medical, lay persons, including Norbert Elias, were associates. Training consisted of weekly seminars, observing groups by sitting as an observer in groups conducted by senior members, then conducting groups under supervision, first with supervisor sitting in, later by reporting, leading to qualification for independent practice. Qualification then meant being accepted as an associate member of the Group-Analytic Society. This training followed the established apprenticeship model of psychoanalytic training. Candidates were expected to have had the experience of personal psychoanalysis and then to participate in therapeutic groups. That was the state of the Group-Analytic Society when I came to know it in the early 1950s, both as an analysand of SH Foulkes and as a training psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, where he had organised a quite large and efficient outpatient department, which offered group psychotherapy to a wide range of disorders.

Now to the formation and history of training at the Institute of Group Analysis, London. Robyn Skinner and Pat de Mare were approached by psychiatric social workers to teach them psychotherapy. The first cohort consisted of about 12 persons, the second many more. Colleagues who had met at the Maudsley Hospital and who had joined the Group-Analytic Practice, also founded by SH Foulkes and James Anthony, resolved to create a new organisation, an Institute of Group Analysis to systematise training. Amongst the founders were Robin Skynner, Pat de Mare, Vivienne Cohen, Heinz Wolf, myself, all psychiatrists and James Hume, a lay analyst. Foulkes himself, though I think not too keen on the idea, went along with it.

To begin with, we offered a 1 year introductory course, consisting of weekly lectures, some seminars, and experiential groups. Three terms of 10 weeks or more, and later the last term was turned over to an experiential large group instead of lectures. We were surprised and delighted by our success - more and more applicants. Initially there was no selection, though we tried to encourage mental health professionals: priests, educators, probation officers soon joined. Our trainees wanted more, so we offered more: an advanced course, as a second and even a third year. Finally, we planned a qualifying course, which would lead to membership of the Institute of Group Analysis and which should be the only route to membership of that organisation. No grandfather or grandmother clause. Twice-weekly group analysis, to begin with mostly in groups at the Group Analytic Practice, with persons who had sought treatment for their own difficulties. Theory of supervision was organised. Theory concerned basic psychoanalysis, basic group analysis and group psychotherapy. Group analysis was on the Foulkesian model, with sideways glances at other models, such as Bion, Ezriel, Whitaker and Lieberman, Wolf and Schwartz.

Foulkes and I jointly gave series seminars, later Dennis Brown took over. Other teachers, increasingly our graduates, offered their particular experiences in hospital psychiatry, child and family work, where Robin Skynner was our authority and leading light. The training was designed to last 3 academic years.

Two significant episodes: The quite large number of family and marital therapists who joined our course were discontented with the emphasis of psychoanalysis and group analysis. They wanted systems theory, Bateson, Palo Alto, the Milan School. Robin Skynner tried to hold things together, but had to accept the inevitable and headed a new Institute for Marital and Family Therapy, whilst himself staying loyal to group analysis.

He was our most successful and prolific author and it is sad that he was struck down in his prime by a stroke, which he bore with courage and dignity.

Another major development was redesigning a comprehensive curriculum organised by the Curriculum Committee, which I had founded and for many years chaired. We re-thought our theory of teaching to give more or less equal weight to individual social and group dynamics. Thus, term 1 was given the title "Mind, Self and Society". For many years I taught the socio-cultural and historical approach to the concept of self. Of course, Norbert Elias was important, but we went back to the ancient Greeks, to medieval society, to the origins of the modern self in the pre-Renaissance period. We looked at the child in the family, the family as a group, group in society. Child development, normal and pathological; psychopathology; neurosis and psychosis. Right from the start our students studied group analysis both as a theory and as a practice: selection and formation of groups, the role of the therapist at both dynamic and as administrator and group conductor was given much attention. We had plenty of material to fill a 3 year didactic training with a later obligation to write both a clinical and a theoretical essay.

What of selection: selection became progressively rigorous. All candidates had to take the introductory First Year, however well-qualified and experienced they might be. Many balked at this, but those who accepted, recognised that they had benefited. Then belonging to a twice-weekly therapy group for a year, a psychiatric interview, a panel of selectors. Many candidates, including some senior members of the Institute, had to re-apply after having had more therapy. Sadly, some candidates were rejected even after several attempts. There were hurt feelings, appeals. Probably some mistakes were made, but the science of selection is still problematic.

What of personal psychoanalysis? This is not a requirement. Many applicants have had their own psychoanalytic psychotherapy, others go on after qualification into individual therapy, either because they wish to have an additional qualification for practising individual therapy, or for more personal reasons. There is a tendency for people to go into analytic psychotherapy rather than psychoanalytic therapy. A very few persons leave group analysis to become exclusively psychoanalyst. Perhaps issues of status are involved.

In the United Kingdom there are two rival organisations competing for public recognition and governmental recognition as representing psychotherapy trainings: the psychoanalyst and analytical psychologists who call themselves members of the British Confederation of Psychotherapy: there are many other organisations, which include Group Analysis, belong to a less exclusive organisation United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. Group Analysis is not a watered down psychoanalysis. It has its own inner strength and dignity.

Supervision. The trainee has to select and form a therapy group. Many find openings as part of their employment in the National Health Service or Social Services: others are unpaid honorary assistants in such units. Supervision is in groups, optimally groups of 3 or 4 trainees. The group must run for at least 2 calendar years and recently, to comply with the European regulations, a second group running for up to 1 year is added, which may be a specialist group rather than a mixed clinical group. The candidates groups meet once a week. Towards the end of their training they bring their experience together in their clinical and theoretical essays, many of which reach a very high standard, and which are judged by a panel of readers, who may ask them to rewrite if they do not seem to reach the necessary standard.

Training outside London. Trainings in group analysis recognised by the Institute of Group Analysis take place in Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin. Other centres are pressing for recognition. All these other trainings take place in what we call the "block system": therapy over the week-ends, teaching with a combination of local and visiting group analysts. The enthusiasm in these other trainings is very high, probably higher than in London, as the trainees seem less drained of energy than our London students, who indeed find it difficult to pursue both training and full-time employment at the same time.

Inevitably, there was some rivalry between London and the other centres, rivalry now more or less reconciled and all can call themselves members of the Institute of Group Analysis with the name of their training organisation added, eg. Institute of Group Analysis (Manchester), (Glasgow), (Dublin).

A recent development is that students who are taking the IGA London Qualifying Course can elect to sit for the Master of Arts of the University of London. This is validated by Birkbeck College. Its requirement is for additional paperwork and assessments.