ABSTRACT
W. R. Bion reported in his Experiences in Groups how primitive and destructive modes of functioning emerged in groups whose attempts at developing defensive or co-operative solutions to the problems of being in a taskless group were relentlessly undermined by their conductor. However, groups which are conducted in a more nurturing and less anxiety-provoking manner than Bion's have repeatedly proved to be able to transcend the destructive forces within them and produce good outcomes for most committed and well-motivated patients. The group-analytic technique is one such method, which on the whole, people confidently expect to facilitate the creative management of destructive trends in their groups in the Practice. Two important works have been produced by group analysts. The first, by Zinkin, identifies a phenomenon which he names "malignant mirroring". The second, by Nitsun, invokes the "anti-group", and is a scholarly review of the processes whereby groups set up with therapeutic intent enter phases in which darker motivations emerge.
