From contagion to separation. Notes on distress from an institutional psychotherapy group

Abstract

The first session of a therapeutic group brings with it a great deal of anguish, which rests its foundation on the fear of unknown and contagion, of the diffusion of the self within an environment that is felt as unknown but as dangerous. On the other hand, the first long pause of group work, that of the summer holidays, brings with it the anguish of separation, which manifests itself in the last sessions and in the first ones upon returning from the summer as a threat to the group container. In fact, the summer break tests the relationship between container and contained, explaining the critical issues but also defining its structure and transformative possibilities. This work, which discusses a group held for more than two years in a Mental Health Service and made up of eight members, mostly women, psychiatric patients in their first psychotherapy experience, contains some notes on the first group session and on that of the return from the first summer break, thus trying to compare these two fundamental group anguishes. The group, held some years ago, is in fact at first put to the test by the terror of the concrete entry of “madness” within itself and then, in an attempt to cure both existential loneliness and the anguish of abandonment, by friendly dynamics among members.