ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an approach to group therapy that is based on the idea that group psychotherapeutic process and change involves a constant movement into and through enactments that involve the group as a whole, the group analyst, and each group member. The chapter examines the process of the enactments from the perspective of current relational theorizing that emphasizes the presence of multiple self-states in the group and the embeddedness of the group analyst within the group enactments. The chapter looks to dynamic systems theory that offers a conceptualization of change and emergence that seems to capture the experience of these enactments both systemically and metaphorically and is beautifully captured by Stuart Kauffman's notion that "life exists at the edge of chaos", to hermeneutic psychoanalysis that emphasizes the emergence of meaning from dialogic interaction and to relational psychoanalytic ideas of enactment, dissociation, and multiplicity.
