PMID: 9661312Jul 14, 1998Paper

Difficult patients: their construction in group therapy

International Journal of Group Psychotherapy
J S Gans, A Alonso

Abstract

Written from the perspective of intersubjective theory, this article addresses how the leader and group members co-construct the difficult patient. Too often, therapists and patients have tended to attribute difficulties in therapy groups to "the difficult patient" without appreciating how they themselves contribute to the construction, the needs this construction serves, and the potential value of such patients to the group. Mistakes in group leadership, vicissitudes of intersubjectivity, disturbing intrapsychic defenses, and whole-group dynamics interact to produce the difficult patient. Also discussed is the group member who is difficult but who no longer meets the criteria for patienthood. By exploring the factors involved in the co-construction of the difficult patient, the authors hope to guide clinicians in the deconstruction of such impediments, thus allowing the difficult patient to become "just another group patient."

References

Jan 1, 1992·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·J S Gans
Jul 1, 1989·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·M Leszcz
Jan 1, 1982·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·W N Stone, J P Gustafson
Oct 1, 1993·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·A Alonso, J S Rutan

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Citations

Jul 1, 1999·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·E F Counselman, J S Gans
Sep 27, 2000·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·W N Stone
Jan 19, 2002·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Bertram D Cohen, Victor L Schermer
May 19, 2005·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Walter N Stone
Apr 22, 2005·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Earl Hopper
Oct 8, 2008·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Jerome S Gans
Mar 20, 2010·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Jerome S Gans, Eleanor F Counselman
Mar 26, 2003·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Peter J O'Brien
Jan 19, 2002·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Stewart L Aledort
Oct 30, 2010·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Philip J Flores
Dec 31, 2008·International Journal of Group Psychotherapy·Victor L Schermer

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