ABSTRACT
A capacity to make partial identification with others is a skill that brings group members out of the loneliness of narcissism and into the lively world of immediacy and progressive emotional communication. Partial identification, which requires empathy and intuition, involves both knowing what another is feeling, and also knowing what we feel toward that other. Developing partial identification will meet with different resistances in men and women. Women often are so skilled at empathy that it prevents them from knowing what they feel toward, not with, others. Men frequently feel reluctant to experience empathy because it unconsciously threatens their masculine autonomy. A skilled group leader who is sensitive to these gender dynamics can encourage male group members to help female members Using clinical examples, the author defines and demonstrates the concept of partial identification and discusses how the pathway to achieving the technique can differ along sexual lines.
