ABSTRACT

From a psychoanalytical point of view, one can say that this love sprang from a repetition compulsion. Masculine stirrings among men triggered off desires for masculinity among women as well. In the process of working through sexual conflicts, the following phases could be distinguished. In a first phase, the women rejected the ungovernable sexuality of the men who consequently felt castrated by the women. It was also helpful that through new significant persons a mature, non-neurotic sexuality streamed from outside into the group. The Oedipal situation in the mother-father-child triangle constitutes the central problem of neurosis. The homosexual impulses that were awakened were so strong as to threaten to overwhelm his weak ego. The common themes of the phases described were sexuality and the Oedipus complex. These themes were experienced differently by each individual, in accordance with the point in the group process and the group member's position in this process.