ENVY AND GRATITUDE IN A LARGE GROUP OF REFUGEES

Studying a group of refugees in its entirety we could not avoid notici ng its extremely regressive position. Faced with the refugees' numerou s existential problems we took the role of a good, caring and tender m other (a good object) who will protect her children, give them securit y, meet their essential needs. In such a regressive situation of the g roup we experienced the refugee camp as a child, taking over the paren t position, which implies specially dependent position. Through the an alysis of envy and gratitude, as well as of the interaction between th e team members and the group of refugees we tried to analyse the pheno mena and particularities of such groups (primarily their regressive po sition). Looking at the group dynamics, in the light of Malanie Klein' s theory, we noticed the existence of paranoid-schizoid position of th e group, manifesting itself through the gap occurring as the defence f rom its self-destructiveness, i.e. as the protection of the introjecte d object (pleasant remembrances and memories of what they had lost) wh ich has to be saved from destruction because the true ''good object'' was really destroyed. The aim of our work in the refugee camp was to e nable the group to gradually overcome the paranoid-schizoid position a nd to transfer into a more mature phase of development, thus creating a favorable atmosphere for maturation and self-reliance.