ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the problems and their causes, and provides technical suggestions for their resolution. The most common and persistent problem in psychotherapy groups is the issue with authority, in which parental transference is cycled and recycled at different depths and different intensities. The specific issues in group psychotherapy are discussed: decision-making; acting out and the many meanings of acting out; socializing between members; members leaving: terminating therapy and dropping out; new members; taking over another therapist's group; boundary behavior in groups; and group size. Psychoanalysis has made an important contribution in bringing the phenomena of specific impulsive behaviors into relation with the dynamics of treatment, particularly as they reflect the transference. S. Freud proposed that patients often act out impulses aroused during the treatment hours, after the sessions, outside of the treatment room. Taking over a group when the therapist is absent is less likely to elicit extreme reactions from the group than taking over the group permanently.
