DREAMS AS INDICATORS OF UNCONSCIOUS DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESSES IN PSYCHOANALYTIC GROUP-THERAPY

In the present paper it will be examined by means of the description o f a therapeutic group process to what extent the dreams may indicate s tructural gain of the individual and of the analytic group as a whole. The theoretical basis is provided by Ammon's conception of the dream as an ego- and group-function. Ammon concluded that the dream as a par ticular form of thinking represents a specific ego-function and indica tes the ability of the individual ego to up its own boundaries. The in tention of the authors is to persue the processual course of the group dreams over one year with the underlying hypothesis, that the dream a bility and implicitly the demarcation ability from the symbiosis and d estructive dynamics leads to a structural developmental process toward s own identity. The described therapeutic group process exposes the in terplay between the symbiotic and the oedipal level in Ammon's concept ion of analytic group psychotherapy. Within this process, the dreams i llustrate and help to render unconscious internalized past destructive dynamics. The sequences of dreams reported in the group make evident the fundamental importance of working through of destructive-aggressiv e dynamics.