INTRODUCTION: In group psychotherapy, group leaders are confronted with a myriad of variables in attempting to frame an interpretation that will be the most useful for the individual and the group. They must decide, for example, where to focus their interpretation: should it be on specific individuals, on the interactions between individuals, or on the group-as-a-whole? OBJECTIVE: To describe details of the 33rd and 34th sessions of a psychotherapy group to reveal structure, focus and content of integrative interpretation. METHOD: The convenient selection of two consecutive sessions of this group including 8 high mental functioning adult patients of both sexes, occurred on the occasion of the admission of two new members. The predominant content, mainly the hostility, in the 34th session, were analyzed by means of up to date psychodynamic concepts. RESULTS: The predominant hostility in the 34th session showed the ambivalence and the conflict over the entrance of two new members. The group leader employed integrative interpretation based on the contents of the 33rd and 34th sessions and on previous sessions in which correlated issues were discussed. DISCUSSION: The integrative interpretation took into account four group levels: 1) individual; 2) sub-group of two individuals; 3) group-as-a-whole; and 4) group's regression to an earlier, less developed stage. CONCLUSION: First of all, the group leader intervened vigorously to keep conflict and hostility within constructive bounds. Secondly, by means of integrative interpretation, the group leader helped the group transcend itself to understand the cognitive-emotional experience unraveling in the 34th session, mainly the struggle for dominance between new and old members.
Group psychotherapy; psychodynamic psychiatry; groupanalysis; interpretation; group dynamic; psychotherapy