This paper investigates the concept of "total situation" which, even though introduced into psychoanalytic thinking via sister disciplines, such as sociology, the neurosciences, etc., has gradually acquired a relatively prominent position in current therapeutic practice. It is used as a metaphor for the envelopment of the unfolding transferential and related events in the analytic process. Irrespective of whether one focuses on the individual analytic condition or the group-analytic one, contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives include both the bi-personal unconscious interactions and the various levels of the total situation in their conceptualizations of the nature of the process. Such a complex approach in conceptualization can only be achieved through the so-called binocular vision of the analyst.
This article focuses on the transferential feelings evoked in the group therapist, towards the phantasy object that is the group-as-a-whole. This focus allows the analyst to present a specific viewpoint as to the unconscious function accorded to the therapist of a group-analytic group. It is proposed that this function is essentially a paternal one and forms part of the primitive oedipal triangular matrix that inevitably develops in any group situation.
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