Abstract
The first analytic groups formed in Brazil were a psychiatrist initiative in the late 1950s to meet the substantial demand for psychotherapeutic care for a large population with inadequate access to material resources. Although group-analytic psychotherapy arrived in private practice a few years later with great success, such therapy has always been a privilege in public institutions that provide free care for low-income populations. This article reports the development of a group-analytic psychotherapy process performed for over 4 years with a neurotic low-income patient group in the psychiatric ward of a major urban hospital in Rio de Janeiro. The department is responsible for clinical education and training of psychiatrists and psychologists. The treatment provided is preferably performed in the group setting. The group report illustrates how group-analytic psychotherapy is delivered in public institutions in Brazil, presenting both its difficulties and specificities.
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Notes
The vast majority of patients treated at the hospital’s group department are female patients. Selecting male patients for groups is usually difficult because they barely manage to attend the sessions at the ambulatory center during work hours, with the exception of those with serious clinical conditions.
Considering that dissociative and conversion disorders (ICD10-F44) are generally treated as hysteria by psychoanalysis, this paper strives to maintain the specificity and terminology adopted by psychoanalytical authors when referring to dissociative and conversion disorders.
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Pires e Albuquerque Penna, C.M. Group-Analytic Psychotherapy with Low-Income Patients in Brazil. Clin Soc Work J 40, 412–420 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-011-0342-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-011-0342-5