Psychoanalytic Group Psychotherapy: A Contemporary Introduction

In this comprehensive volume, Richard M. Billow provides a thorough introduction to group psychotherapy from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Billow integrates contemporary psychoanalytic thinking with Freudian and Kleinian core concepts, as well as Bion’s early group theory and his later metapsychology, to provide a holistic overview of group therapy and its potential benefits for patients. He incorporates major psychoanalytic thinkers outside the American relational mainstream - such as Lacan, Laplanche, Kaes, Foulkes, and Pichon Riviere, as well as his own prominent contributions to the field - to provide a unique and interdisciplinary overview. Throughout the chapters, readers will be introduced to challenging clinical experiences that illustrate some of the similarities and differences among psychoanalytic and other psychodynamic group approaches. Offering guidelines on how to harness and conduct the group, Billow provides exceptional insight into the veritable benefits of maintaining an analytic stance within the clinical setting.

Written in a clear and accessible style, this book is a vital tool for students and professionals interested in a thorough overview of psychoanalytically-based group treatments.

Richard M. Billow is a clinical psychologist based in New York, USA. He was the director of the Postgraduate Group Program at the Derner Institute, Adelphi University, New York and currently serves as Clinical Professor in Adelphi’s Postgraduate programs in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He is the author of Developing Nuclear Ideas: Relational Group Psychotherapy (2015) and Resistance, Rebellion and Refusal in Groups: The 3 Rs (2010). His work was compiled and edited by Tzachi Slonim in 2021 and published as Richard M. Billow’s Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis and Group Process: Changing Our Minds (2021).