ABSTRACT
S. H. Foulkes inaugurated a distinctive school of group psychotherapy, which he referred to as ‘group analysis’, or ‘group-analytic psychotherapy’. The concept of free association is quite central to the analytic enterprise. Foulkes repeatedly claims that an analytic sensibility is necessary, but not sufficient, for a group analyst, who will be required to develop a ‘different frame of reference’ from that of the individual analyst. ‘The group-analytic group’, wrote Foulkes, ‘is essentially a transference group’. There are other places in Foulkes’ work where his enthusiasm for the group causes him to become muddled. Where Foulkes sees the most compelling evidence for his own ‘interactive process’ theory of mind is in the intercommunications of a group, seen as a ‘psychic system’ of mental processes. Whatever the shortcomings of Foulkes as a theorist, group analysis, along the lines explored and inspired by him, increasingly continues to be practiced.
