ABSTRACT
Reenactments are a manifestation of the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Reenactments that occur in a psychotherapy group offer a gold mine of information about the family disease of addiction among members of the group. Group members are powerless over their addictions, and they are also powerless over reenacting their trauma. Reenactments outside of the group have led to unmanageability including the avoidance of relationships or the alienation of others. The emergence of therapeutic reenactments is affected by the homogeneity or heterogeneity among group members as well as by the group dynamics and basic assumption life present in the group. When group members surrender to their addictive processes, which entails admission of powerlessness and unmanageability as well as a willingness to turn to the group-as-a-whole for help, they surrender to their therapeutic reenactments. Compliance with perceived rules of treatment constitutes a serious barrier to surrender.
Structural racism and violence are common sources of trauma. Violence may be physical, psychological, sexual, emotional or spiritual.
Trauma appears clinically in group members as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Group psychotherapy offers the opportunity for systematic desensitization of the triggers that lead to the avoidance characteristic of PTSD, which includes the suppression of feelings. Via projective identification and introjection, group members may form therapeutic trauma bonds that facilitate the exploration of therapeutic reenactments. These reenactments occur in both in-person and virtual groups.
