ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current theoretical issues regarding the concept of the self. Sutherland pulls together the ideas of Balint, Guntrip, D. W. Winnicott and Ronald Fairbairn, and emphasizes that, despite their highly individual viewpoints, they have in common their belief that a superordinate concept of the self is a necessary addition to existing analytic theory. The chapter proposes some ideas about the specific effect of therapeutic groups on the self and illustrates these views with a clinical example of a group patient whom the author treated for over four years. For the most part, groups provide patients with numerous opportunities for growth in self-esteem, developing the capacity for empathy, gratifying the need for affirmation of one's identity, and providing the individual with gratifying affiliations with a family type group. The chapter describes the patient's treatment under three main rubrics that eventually modified his fragile sense of self: mirroring, peer relationships and a sense of belonging.
