The Rhythm of the Group: Reply to Commentaries

Abstract

In this response I integrate the concept of thirdness into my description of group analysis and advance the concept of being-with-the-group that involves the analyst coconstructing and responding to the rhythmic third of the group. This is a stance that enables the group to be the agent of change and to traverse the phase shifts that move the group through enactments of rigid complementarity to the emergence of thirdness. Accordingly I address the place of transference interpretations in group. I suggest that groups are not destructive by design but that aggression and destructiveness are emergent qualities in groups. I offer a short clinical example of group interaction that illustrates the emerging relational network and rhythm of a group.