1st Edition
Resonance and Reciprocity Selected Papers by Dennis Brown
This collection of papers, published between 1976 and 2003, traces the innovative connections which the eminent group analyst Dennis Brown made between medicine and psychoanalysis. They reveal his important insights into how the principles of group analysis can improve our understanding of philosophy and ethics, and trace the development of trans-cultural dimensions of group analysis.
Beginning with Dennis’ early work in dermatology, the first section of Resonance and Reciprocity provides a fascinating overview of the insights gained into psychosomatic conditions through the application of psychoanalysis and group analysis. The second section builds on the tenet of group analysis that therapy should change the therapist as well as the client, addressing the changes that can take place in the therapeutic milieu, both in client and provider. The chapter on drowsiness, a modern classic, provides a significant contribution to our understanding of the emotional and physical changes that the therapist experiences during analysis, and its wider implications for our appreciation of how changes in mental and physical states are affected by a person’s emotional world. The final section reveals how Dennis Brown extended his interest and his activities beyond the individual, the small and the large group, and studied groups within and across cultures.
This book provides not only a solid understanding of complex analytical notions but also opens the road for future development. It will appeal to students and professionals in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and group psychotherapy.
Editor’s Introduction. Foreword: Professor Anthony W Bateman. Author’s Introduction and Autobiographical Notes. Part 1: Psychosomatics: Introductory Comments. Listening to Eczema - Deductions and Predictions. The Psychosoma and the Group. The Royal Road to the Mysterious Leap: The Psychosoma and the Analytic Process. Part 2: Psychoanalysis and Group Analysis. Drowsiness in the Countertransference. Assessment and Selection for Groups. Text, Context and Texture: Free Speech in the Service of Health and Healing. Dialogue for Change. Confrontation in the Group Analytic Matrix: Toward a Classification. Change in the Group-Analytic Setting. Self Development Through Subjective Interaction: A Fresh Look at "Ego Training in Action". Fair Shares and Mutual Concern: The Role of Sibling Relationships. Part 3: Transculturality and Metapsychology. Context, Content And Process: Inter-Relationships Between Small And Large Groups in a Transcultural Workshop. Views of Maastricht & Heidelberg: Some Questions Arising from Two Transcultural Workshops Seen by Observers with Different Roles. Use and Abuse of Cultural Differences Analysis and Ethics in Transcultural Workshop Settings. Group Analysis, Transculturality and Ethics. Foulkes’s Basic Law of Group Dynamics 50 Years on: Abnormality, Injustice and the Renewal of Ethics. Pairing Bion and Foulkes: Towards a Metapsychosociology? Bion and Foulkes: Basic Assumptions and Beyond.
Biography
Dennis Brown, psychiatrist, analyst and group analyst was a leading figure in the field of group analysis and for many years worked both in the NHS and at the Group-Analytic Practice. With vast experience in the treatment of psychosomatic as well as psychological / psychiatric conditions, he taught internationally and was read widely. He co-authored Introduction to Psychotherapy: an outline of psychodynamic principles and practice. He was a founder member of the Routledge International Library of Group Psychotherapy. He was an important contributor in the development of psychotherapy services in the Health Service.
Jason Maratos is a psychiatrist for children and adolescents and a group analyst based at The Group-Analytic Practice. In his work he integrates the discoveries of medicine, psychiatry (and the findings of developmental psychology), psychoanalysis and group analysis with philosophical trends from Aristotle to the post-modernists. He has published and lectured in the UK, Europe and South America.
"Throughout the book Dennis Brown’s personality and capacities show through. He is deeply devoted both to psychoanalysis and to group analysis, thinks and writes simply and clearly and has left us a rich legacy…It should be widely read, certainly by group analysts but hopefully by other members of our far flung group psychotherapy community."
– Malcomb Pines, Psychodynamic Practice
