Group-Analytic Psychotherapy for Trauma Patients in Mixed Groups of Perpetrators and Victims

All reports about homogenous groups of victims or perpetrators, as well as my own experience, show that the process of cross-identification between victims and perpetrators can only be worked through in mixed groups with victims and perpetrators. This process of cross-identification was supported by mirroring, resonance, holding and containing inside the group. The following identification processes could be differentiated: 1. Identification with the group analytic attitude of communicating freely, of being nonjudgmental, tolerant, curious in diversity, hoping for understanding, empathetic (taking over the view of the other) of playing with different perspectives and of trust, 2. cross-identification between perpetrators and victims, 3. identification with the pretend-mode of relating, perceiving and functioning and thus differentiating from an equivalent mode of functioning, 4. identification with oneself as a victim or a perpetrator, 5. identification with the aggressor in a direct way: having been a victim in childhood and becoming a perpetrator later, 6. identification with the aggressor in a masochistic way: being submissive, becoming passive, feeling guilty, feeling a victim in all everyday life situations, 7. identification with a non-empathetic mother by feeling nothing.