ABSTRACT
Practice in the therapy of mentally ill patients helps the conductor to grasp scenes in the group that would appear bewildering to the average layman. It was Wolfgang Widok who, on the strength of his many years of experience with groups, drew the attention to this aspect of our work. If group therapy is indicated for a patient who seeks the psychoanalyst's help, that possibility will be put to him. Provided that the patient is ready to follow up the suggestion, an individual 'contract' will be agreed between him and the analyst. There were also signs of the so-called mirror transference as described by Heinz Kohut. The concept of 'group-ego-function' implies that the individual's trauma corresponds always to a family trauma. Given the appropriate emotional climate, it is painfully re-enacted in a regression 'in the group's service', as if it were the real trauma.
