I was asked what I thought the difference was between psychoanalytic group therapy in person and on zoom.
All therapy groups have in common the goal of mutual support and getting better from some injury to the self. The process is complicated by the fact some part of that "traumatic memory" will be "stored" in "the unconscious". If these traumatic experiences occur in infancy, before language memory is formed, we will have no direct memory of them. If on the other hand traumatic injury occurs after language memory is formed we may "automatically forget" the traumatic memory to some considerable extent, a phenomenon psychologists call "repression".
And since any "emotional injury" can potentially reduce our capacity for self-care and constructive functioning with others, we desire healing of the injury. This is the function of psychology and psychoanalytic therapies.
Emotional injury is essentially a disruption of the "love-bond" for self and others. We learn to love self in early childhood by being loved by others (parents, siblings, and extended family). Healing from these disruptive injuries is a function of present time interactions based in love.
If we went to a therapist, and all they did was scream at us, we'd leave, and no healing of traumatic memory would occur. Instead, we are treated kindly, and over time a "trust bond" can form, which is the foundational form of love.
Psychoanalytic therapy groups attempt to focus specifically on emotional injuries that can reduce self-love, the capacity to love others, and functioning.
So then what is the potential difference between a therapy group conducted on-line with zoom, and one conducted in person? It can be expressed a number of ways. First is tangibility: the "connection" between humans (and other "nearby" animals, dogs, cats, horses etc etc) is more "tangible" in physical proximity. There are many reasons for that, among them the potential for physical contact (usually discouraged in therapy groups), but the "potential" (positive electrical charge) is present. Many or most of these potentials exist on an unconscious level, but are present regardless.
Another form of connection exists also, related to the previous, but "larger" and more encompassing (but also one we tend to dismiss as hokum), and is the interaction between proximate nervous systems.
Basic electro-magnetic theory: transmission of electricity through a conductor generates an electromagnetic wave of specific strength and form determined by the characteristics of the specific transmission.
The nervous system is the organ of "the sixth sense", and it depends on proximity (inverse square law of wave propagation). The nervous system is a very complex "antenna" structure attuned specifically to other human nervous systems, but also extends to other mammals. Due to the proximity effect, the sending and receiving of this "radio-energy" is strongest in a hug. But it is also strong in a "proximate group", where the numbers of sending and receiving "signals" creates a more complex "electromagnetic field".
The field "enters us" on a mostly unconscious level, meaning the brain (part of the nervous system) is "processing" the "information" generated by the proximate group, but only comes to awareness "when necessary", upon activation of the instinct functions having mostly to do with threat, procreation, and food, the basic survival instincts.
What would activation of "survival instinct" in a proximate group have to do with "therapy"? Survival instinct is the basis of functioning. With better "conditional" functioning we become more "articulate" in our responsiveness to the wide variety of other humans we interact with. Conditional functioning is the more appropriate responses to the conditions in front of us from moment to moment.
And better functioning creates greater self-confidence (self love), and the capacity to love others to the appropriate degree from moment to moment. Better functioning is a larger "vocabulary of behavior", so to speak, that we can draw on as needed.
A personal example for me of becoming more aware of "electromagnetic connection" was the difference I experienced in meditation with a group in a room vs meditation alone. It seems to me a kind of "mind meld" occurs in a group, and I go deeper and more quickly into the meditative state.
Oh, and the two letters? Psychic-ology.
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