ABSTRACT
The complex process that takes place within psychoanalytic group therapy runs through an initial phase, a middle or main phase, and an end phase. The patient should have a sufficiently strong motivation to participate in psychoanalytic group therapy. Such a motivation implies that he sees this method as a way of overcoming his difficulties. As in individual therapy, the candidate for group therapy should be able to establish a working alliance with the analyst. The patient should have a sufficiently strong motivation to participate in psychoanalytic group therapy. Klaus Frank mentions another criterion, the patient has to be able to move and change back and forth between himself and the structure of the group-as-a-whole. As in individual therapy, the rule has to be honoured in order for the process to start. The alternating talking and not-talking of one group member and the others is characteristic of free discussion in a group.
