Arturo Ezquerro

• Royal College of Psychiatrists and Institute of Group Analysis, London

This article explores key aspects of man-made human suffering from a psychoanalytic, group-analytic and group attachment standpoint. It postulates that, when unresolved individual and group trauma remains untreated, it can be a fuel for vicious cycles of hatred, terror and destruction. In order to explore this, the article focuses on the intractabl...

This article provides a developmental perspective of late life, a time of growth in some areas and decline in others. In contrast to younger adults, who go through a process of expansion, productivity, and mastery, older adults increasingly experience reduced rather than expanded choices and capabilities, including many losses and a heightened awar...

A succinct account of the genesis and development of the Tavistock and group-analytic models of group psychotherapy focuses on their creators, Bion and Foulkes, and on how their life circumstances and their interpersonal and group attachment histories shaped their thinking and perception of the group and its therapeutic potential. The methodology c...

This hybrid piece of work aims to pay tribute to David Malan (21 March 1922–14 October 2020) who has been one of the great influences on open-minded psychoanalysis and psychodynamic mental health. Inspired by the work and ideas of John Bowlby, Michael Bálint and Habib Davanloo, over five decades, Dr Malan committed himself to finding effective trea...

This article aims to explore some of the implications of the coronavirus pandemic on attachment-based psychotherapy practice, in the wider context of lockdown in a traumatised society fighting for survival. In the midst of this unprecedented crisis, it is a duty for psychotherapists and other mental health professionals to carry on working with emo...

Through group thinking and thorough research, this article critically examines the democratic quality of the June 2016 UK referendum on EU membership. The Brexit ‘mandate’ is based on 52% of the voters but just 26% of the UK population. On a rigorous scrutiny, the referendum failed key tests on democratic legitimacy, such as human rights and the de...

This article tries to make sense of Brexit, or otherwise, from a group attachment perspective. It provides a historical analysis of the fluctuating and highly ambivalent relationship of the United Kingdom (UK) with the European Union (EU), so far the most ambitious supranational and transnational group project in the world. But the EU has failed to...

This article aims to honour Peter Bruggen (17 July 1934–20 September 2018) who has been one of the great influences on adolescent mental health and, from my perspective, on innovative ‘group-analytic’, psychotherapy. Inspired by the work and ideas of Donal Winnicott, Derek Miller, Tom Main and SH Foulkes, Bruggen created an in-patient adolescent un...

This article provides a historical overview of sexual abuse theory (all in the mind?) within the development of psychoanalytic theory. It aims, from an attachment perspective, to increase awareness of the problem in psychotherapy and other institutions with a view to maximizing prevention and support for the survivors. The article challenges societ...

This article describes the flexible application of group-analytic principles in a long-term group psychotherapy programme for psychotic patients, within the wider containing structure of a weekly day project in a community setting. Clinical vignettes illustrate the steady development of a benign group therapeutic culture which helped patients achie...

Group-analysis historically developed from psychoanalysis but it added a multipersonal or social dimension, which is important in the understanding and management of patients suffering from bipolar affective disorders—as they often experience significant relationship difficulties. There is empirical evidence that homogeneous therapy groups for bipo...

Before Pines, group analytic practitioners had emphasized the concept of cohesion as the main force in keeping the group together and, as such, a crucial therapeutic factor. Pines examined the concept of coherency in psychoanalysis as a key element in healthy human development. He innovatively applied to group analysis this concept of coherency as...

ABSTRACT Orthodox psychoanalysis offered the view that mental processes in the elderly are too rigidly established for favourable treatment results. Group psychotherapy with the elderly in general has received little attention, mostly concentrating on inpatient groups. The main focus has been on supportive techniques, often in institutional setting...

This article describes some ideas, both theoretical and clinical, related to the group-analytic treatment of psychosis, in the context of a Psychotherapy Day-Hospital that runs weekly in a multi-racial and deprived district in England. Clinical vignettes refer to different developmental stages in the life of a slow-open group. Strikingly, after cer...

This article describes some ideas, both theoretical and clinical, related to the group-analytic treatment of psychosis, in the context of a Psychotherapy Day-Hospital that runs weekly in a multi-racial and deprived district in England. Clinical vignettes refer to different developmental stages in the life of a slow-open group. Strikingly, after cer...

This paper examines some issues related to the Tavistock (Bionian) and Group-Analytic (Foulkesian) approaches to group therapy, in the context of an out-patient group which met weekly over thirty-two months. Reference is made to theories and models within the frameworks of Psychoanalysis and Group-Analysis. To conduct this group was a part of the a...

This paper examines some issues related to the Tavistock (Bionian) and Group-Analytic (Foulkesian) approaches to group therapy, in the context of an out-patient group which met weekly over thirty-two months. Reference is made to theories and models within the frameworks of Psychoanalysis and Group-Analysis. To conduct this group was a part of the a...

This paper describes the author's experience of introducing group psychotherapy into a State-maintained special school that was becoming `market orientated'. He concludes that if clinicians persevere, so will the patients... and their managers.