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Memory and Psychotherapy: Individual and Group

This article examines the roles which memory and remembering play in promoting the processes of individual and group psychotherapy. Some of the factors which distort and modify memory are examined. The processes of remembering history and stories are considered. The way in which therapist and patient work together creates a biography to which the psyches of both have contributed. The purpose of therapy is to give meaning to the biographical story. The relative importance of this biographical process in individual and group therapy respectively is explored. The therapy group tends to be concerned with the relationship of the individual to society and with dialogue in the here-and-now of the group. Persistence and later revival of the memory of group activities which took place in times and places charged with feeling is illustrated. That group events are remembered long afterwards is closely related to the memories of survivors of trauma. The false memory syndrome' is considered and the fact that time and memory are closely linked, with oral tradition kept alive throughout the group. Such tradition gives old memory a poetic quality. The conclusion is that memory per se should be trusted, provided we take into account the many factors that affect its linear reliability.