Response to Liat Warhaftig-Aran’s ‘When patients fall in love’

This is a brave article by Liat Warhaftig-Aran (2018) that challenges the near-silence in group analysis on love and the erotic in groups and that offers a bold and original perspective of its own. The article focuses on a dramatic situation in a group run by the author. A male patient, married but inhibited and seemingly out of touch with his desire, falls in love with a woman in the group. Anxious about exploring this in the group, he asks the therapist whether he can meet to the woman outside the group. The therapist faces a dilemma: her training and supervision emphasize the importance of maintaining boundaries as a first principle of group analytic psychotherapy. However, she finds herself inclined to agree to the request, sensing that this may be a developmental experience for the man, the woman—and potentially the group. She and the group agree on condition that the discussion outside the group is shared afterward in the group. The outcome of the extra-group meeting is complex and rather unsatisfactory from the man’s point of view: the woman does not reciprocate his feelings. However, the capacity to fall in love and express his feelings to another appears to strengthen the man’s sense of self and confidence. His relationship with his wife improves. The woman also gains from the experience, feeling attractive and loved in a way that she has seldom experienced. The rest of the group are also freer than before to explore their desires and longings and the difficulty of managing these in relationships. The article is a valuable contribution to the developing discourse on sexuality and desire in the group, largely initiated by Moeller 767959 GAQ0010.1177/0533316418767959Group AnalysisNitsun: Response to Warhaftig-Aran research-article2018