The Conductor in Action
S.H. Foulkes · 2018
This chapter deals with the conductor as an administrator and considers the conductor as a therapist in the more specific sense. He has selected the patients, formed the group and created the group-analytical situation as his frame of reference in which he will work. The conductor ought be an experienced psychoanalyst, though this cannot be reversed; a psychoanalyst experienced in the individual situation would be insufficiently equipped to be a group conductor without special training and experience. As the conductor&s;s interventions are mostly verbal, it is usual to think of them entirely in terms of interpretations. The conductor should be able to follow the patients&s; communications. All behaviour is considered a communication relevant to the therapeutic situation. The conductor&s;s first task is not merely to perceive meaning, but also to place it in the appropriate dynamic setting.