ABSTRACT
Attachment theory, as part of the development of the newer relational models within psychodynamic theory, represents a conceptual revolution that has emerged over the last few years which has attempted to synthesise the best ideas of psychoanalysis, the cognitive sciences, and neurobiology. New attachment experiences that challenge the validity of early working models are what make personal development and successful psychotherapy possible. Mentalisation is not just a cognitive process because it extends beyond an intellectual understanding and represents the ability to link thinking to feeling, thus helping the person “to connect to the meaning of one’s emotions”. If group psychotherapy is to become more grounded in scientific theory, group therapists must pay closer attention to the vast amount of research evidence and information that the neurosciences are generating about the human brain. There has been a growing recognition that new conceptual tools are required to explain how change occurs as the result of psychotherapy in individual and group psychotherapy.
