Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

On mirroring in group psychotherapy

  • Published:
Group

Abstract

“A woman has two images. There is a magical person seen or remembered by those who love her, her finest qualities are flesh and spirit illuminated. She herself knows this ideal self; she projects it, if she is confident; or she daydreams her ideal self; or she recognizes it with gratitude in the admiring eye of others. There is at the same time a second image; the woman as seen by those who dislike or fear her. This cruel picture has an all too powerful mirror in her own negative idea of herself. She sees with fear her own ravaging impulses and most painful of all, a graceless, freakish, and unlovable physical self, this was the mirror her parents held before Edith. Her brothers saw her with love. She herself knew both images. Her life, and her poetry, constituted a flight from the second one.”

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • ABELIN, E. L. The role of the father in the separation-individuation process. In J. B. McDevitt & C. F. Settlage (Eds.),Separation-Individuation. New York: International Universities Press, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • ABELIN, E. L. Triangulation, the role of the father and the origins of core gender identity during the rapprochement sub-phase. In R. F. Lax, S. Bach & J. A. Berland (Eds.),Rapprochement. New York: Jason Aronson, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • ABRAM, M. H.The Mirror and the Lamp. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • AMSTERDAM, B. & LEVITT, M. Consciousness of self and painful self consciousness.Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Vol. 35, 1980.

  • BACH, S. Self-love and object-love: Some problems of self- and object constancy, differentiation and integration. In R. F. Lax, S. Bach & J. A. Berland (Eds.),Rapprochement. New York: Jason Aronson, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • BORGES, J. L.The Book of Imaginary Beings. London: Penguin Books, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • BURSTEN, B. The narcissistic course. In M. C. Nelson (Ed.),The Narcissistic Condition. New York: Human Sciences Press, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • CIANI, N., FIUMARA, R., CAJORALI, M. & ZANASI, M. The diagnosis and treatment of narcissistic disturbances in group analysis.Group Analysis, 1981, 14, 3, 178–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • CLOSS, A.Medusa's Mirror. London: The Crescent Press, 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • CONRAD, J. The secret sharer. InTwixt Land and Sea. London: Dent, 1912.

    Google Scholar 

  • COX, C. B.Joseph Conrad-The Modern Imagination. London: Dent, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • DARWIN, C. A biographical sketch of an infant.Mind, 1877, 7.

  • DESMOND, A.The Apes Reflection. London: Quartet Books, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • DIEL, P.Symbolism in Greek Mythology. London: Boulder & Horton, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • ESCHER, M. C. Three worlds. InThe World of M. C. Escher. New York: New American Library, 1974, p. 124.

    Google Scholar 

  • FOULKES, S. H.Therapeutic Group Analysis. New York: International Universities Press, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1917) Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis.Standard Edition, Vol. 16, p. 252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1920) Beyond the pleasure principle.Standard Edition, Vol. 18, p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  • GARLAND, C. Reflections: Face to face.Group Anaylsis, April 1980, 13, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • GOLDING, F.The Mirror of Narcissus in the Courtly Love Lyric. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • GROTSTEIN, J. S.Splitting and Projective Identification. New York: Jason Aronson, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • HAINES, D.Greek Art and the Idea of Freedom. London: Thames & Hudson, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • KOHUT, H.The Analysis of the Self. London: Hogarth Press, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • KOHUT, H. The bipolar self: Panel report.Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1981, 29.

  • KRAMER, S. The adolescent recapitulation of a childhood psychosis. In J. B. McDevitt & C. F. Settlage (Eds.),Separation-individuation. New York: International Universities Press, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • LACAN, J. Some reflections of the ego.International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1953, 34, 11–17.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LACAN, J. The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. InEcrits. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • LAPLANCHE, J. & PONTALIS, J. B.The Language of Psychoanalysis, The Mirror Stage. London: Hogarth Press, 1973, p. 250.

    Google Scholar 

  • LAXENAIRE, M. Group analytic psychotherapy according to Foulkes and psychoanalysis according to Lacan. In M. Pines (Ed.),The Evolution of Group Analysis. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • LEAL, R. Why group analysis works. In M. Pines (Ed.),The Evolution of Group Analysis. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • LEWIS, M. & BROOKS-GUNN, J.Social Cognition and the Acquisition of the Self. New York: Plenum Press, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • LICHTENSTEIN, H. The dilemna of human identity. InNarcissism and Primary Identity. New York: Jason Aronson, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • LOEWALD, H. On internalization.International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1973, 54.

  • MAHLER, M. On human symbiosis and the vicissitudes of individuation.Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1967, 15, 740–63.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MAHLER, M. S., PINE, F., & BERGMAN, A.The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant. London: Hutchinson, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • MCCALL, G. J. The social looking glass; The sociological perspective on self development. In T. Mischel (Ed.),The Self. Oxford: Blackwell, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • MEAD, G. H.Mind, Self and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.

    Google Scholar 

  • MERLEAU-PONTY, M. The child's relations with others. In J. M. Ebedie (Ed.),The Primacy of Perception. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • OGDEN, T. H. On projective identification.International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1979, 60, 3, 357.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • PINES, M. The contributions of S. H. Foulkes to group analytic psychotherapy. In L. Wolberg, R. Aronson & A. Wolberg (Eds.),Group Therapy. New York: Stratton Intercontinental, 1978. (a)

    Google Scholar 

  • PINES, M. Group psychotherapy of the borderline patient.Group Analysis, 1978. (b)

  • PLATH, S.Collected Poems. London: Faber & Faber, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • RANK, O.The Double. A Psychoanalytic Study. New York: New American Library, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • ROGERS, R.The Double in Literature. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • ROHEIM, G.Spiegelzauben. Vienna: Int. Psychoanal. Verlag, 1919.

    Google Scholar 

  • RORTY, R.Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • SANDER, L. New knowledge about the infant from current research: Implications for psychoanalysis.Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1980, 28, 1, 181.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • SHENGOLD, L. The metaphor of the mirror.Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1974, 22, 97–115.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • SHOTTER, J. & GREGORY, S. On first gaining the idea of oneself as a person. In R. Harré (Ed.),Life Sentences. New York: Wiley, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • SPITZ, R. The detailment of dialogue.Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1964, 12, 752–75.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • STISKIN, N.The Looking Glass God. New York: Weatherhill, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • WINNICOTT, D. W.Playing and Reality. London: Tavistock Publications, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • WOOSTER, G. Resistance in groups as developmental difficulty in triangulation. Paper given at Fifth European Symposium of Group Analysis, Rome, 1981.

  • YALOM, I. D.The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, 2nd ed. New York: Basic Books, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tavistock Clinic, London

    Malcolm Pines F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych, D.P.M. (Consultant Psychotherapist, Founder member, Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, President of the International Association of Group Psychotherapy)

  2. The Institute of Group Analysis, London

    Malcolm Pines F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych, D.P.M. (Consultant Psychotherapist, Founder member, Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society, President of the International Association of Group Psychotherapy)

Authors
  1. Malcolm Pines F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych, D.P.M.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pines, M. On mirroring in group psychotherapy. Group 7, 3–17 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01458246

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01458246

Keywords

Search

Navigation