Intersubjective Group Psychotherapy

Intersubjective approaches address the subjectivities of all the participants in a therapy interaction, including the therapist. These approaches stress the idea that in every meeting there are two or more subjective experiences that meet, each with a need for recognition of their subjectivities. Inter-subjectivists criticize “one-person psychology,” in which the sole focus is the internal experience of the client, and claim that the psyche is a result of the interactional context; thus, analytic exploration should focus on what occurs in the interaction and in the subjective experience of all the participants. The application of intersubjective approaches to group psychotherapy means that what happens in the group originates from the inner worlds of the participants, not just from one member’s psyche. Moving further from a “two-person ...