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Introduction Group and Rite

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The small psychoanalytic group is itself a ritual that contains individual anxieties and allows them to be faced within a group setting, creating a sense of belonging and the possibility of change. One of my patients said, turning to his companions, “We’re not losers: we have the group.” The ritual is accentuated by the size of the group. Belonging to the group allows the recovery and sharing of one’s childhood history, even when it is dramatic.
In one group, a story of sexual abuse endured was preceded by a dream in which the patient was naked under his coat, and, commenting on the dream said, “now all of us are stripping naked.” The similar experiences of others make us feel more human, the mirror-effect of the group, Read more

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“Revolutionary” baby, rite and family

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Abstract

Rites marks life cycles and social rhythms.  They are present in all areas of psychotherapy, especially in group psychotherapy.  However, the traditional rites surrounding birth are disappearing.  The hypothesis of this communication is based on the idea that the birth event provokes the rite because birth is an upheaval, a revolution, both for the newborn baby and for the family that welcomes the new member (into its fold).  Starting from a series of clinical examples Read more

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Group and Rite

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Abstract

This text attributes several significances and functions to social rite and its construction inside group. Certainly, these have a social value in  maintaining and keep cohesive group, but also they can stimulate new experiences, not already known and coherent.
Author poses three different notions of social rite and he compares them to other three opposed notions. First of all, (a) the containing function and creative of social rite inside group, contrasting to ceremony, which makes rite’s  structure more formalized. Then, (b) notion of rite is viewed as a shared dreaming’s narrative rite. Read more

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A small ritual and three phases of the process of elaboration in group psychoanalysis

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Abstract
Using an extended clinical account, I draw attention to two questions that are important to understanding the therapeutic efficacy of the small psychoanalytic group. The first is the relationship between therapeutic efficacy and the implementation of rituals, which confirm the transition from one condition to another in life, or which allow the sharing of experiences that may otherwise remain confined to a restricted private state. The second relates to the Read more

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Resonances and Reflections on the Works of Marinelli, Mellier, and Neri Presented at the “Group and Ritual” Conference

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Abstract

The theme “Group and Ritual” seems of particular significance at this profoundly complex and dramatic historical moment, with the danger of closing into the “private,” provoking a disintegrating and dangerous narcissism. The analytically-led small group can be not only a valid model for dealing with narcissistic closure in the self, but is also a preferable method for healing contemporary malaise, characterized by the inhibition of preconscious functions of creativity and symbolization. This lack is intensified in times of profound change, of transitional Read more

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Cybernetic Rituals and Rituality in the community of Digital Brothers: clinical and theoretical reflections

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Abstract

The present paper focuses on the theme of ritual in adolescence. Firstly, the function of ritual in adolescence and related pubertal transformation are discussed. The crisis of rituals in post-modern societies is mentioned and possible subsequent outcomes of that, in terms of youngsters’ developmental path, discussed. Particular attention is given to possible ritual-like functions offered by cyberspace and videogames. Specifically, an attempt is made to distinguish those phenomena that serve as a ritual the youth’s development from those frankly Read more

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The family body in exile. Ritual value of everyday life

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Abstract

Exile constitutes a risk factor that is magnified when a subject or family is especially vulnerable, and the extreme conditions under which people have emigrated in recent years heightens this vulnerability. The author considers situations in which not only one family member demonstrates malaise at the psychic or somatic level, but where strong distress is expressed by everyone, both parents and children. The transcultural clinic, whether it operates in a social, psychological or healthcare field, requires tools in order to recognise, Read more

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Clinical references to the group work with children and adolescents: body language

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Abstract
In this paper we explore the body dimension of group dynamics, the body language that expresses and signifies the affects. Some clinical vignettes involving a group of children and a group of adolescents are presented to exemplify the relationships as they unfold through action capable of giving a communicable form to thought. In this exploration of a field of collective forces, where both the known and the unknown are met, we observe the movements generated by Read more