The Dialogues in and of the Group: Lacanian Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Group

The New International Library of Group Analysis

by Macario Giraldo

This book is intended to be an introductory presentation of some key concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis as applied to the psychoanalytic group. The author describes his own encounter with Lacan and gives a biographical summary of Lacan's life and influence in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and other related fields. He makes use of clinical vignettes to introduce Lacan's basic concepts into the work with the group. The clinician is oriented to think in a way that restores to the "talking cure" the importance of listening to language and its uses in the transference. The author also introduces his own concepts of the dialogues IN and OF the group to distinguish the discourse of the ego in contrast with the flow of the unconscious in the group analytic session.It is written for the psychoanalytic group therapist or analyst as an introduction of basic Lacanian concepts in a style that intends to invite a new attitude to the reading of the group phenomena.

Genres: Psychoanalysis

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2012

Reviews

[Shulamith Farhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giraldo convincingly makes the case that Lacanian concepts yield fruitful results in group settings. The distinction between dialogues in and of the group is helpful, and the clarification of the dynamics of alienation and separation unpacks these difficult notions with vivid case studies. The highlight of the book comes in Giraldo's Hegelian claim that group work "addresses the mind, spirit or soul of our patients" -- this is promising, pointing towards a renegotiation of the Lacan/Hegel problematic attentive to the "I that is We and the We that is I."