`Why are Women Allowed to be Group Analysts?' Reactions to a Conductor's Pregnancy

Abstract

With no available literature to help her at the time, the author felt lost conducting a Group-analytic therapy complicated by the simultaneous pregnancies of a group member and herself In describing the impact of the pregnancies on the group as a whole she also considers some of the possible impacts the female conductor's gender may have on group dynamics in general. The pressing drive towards independence observed in the group seemed to be a response to her pregnancy. It was accompanied by an increase in mythological themes that may have helped the group in the same way that fairy tales help children to grow up and mature.