Our Responses to a Deadly Virus: The Group-Analytic Approach

244 Pages·1990·2.629 MB·English

by  Angela Molnos

OUR RESPONSES
TO A DEADLY VIRUS
The Group-Analytic Approach
Angela Molnos
OUR RESPONSES
TO A DEADLY VIRUS
The Group-Analytic Approach
Angela Molnos
Published by Karnac Books
for
The Institute of Group Analysis
and The Group-Analytic Society
(London)
Karnac Books
London 1990
First published in 1990 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd.
58 Gloucester Road
London SW7 4QY
Copyright © 1990
by Angela Molnos
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
in any form, by any process or technique,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Molnos, Angela
Our responses to a deadly virus
1. Man. AIDS. Psychological aspects
I. Title
616.9'792'0019
ISBN 0-946439--80-X
Printed in Great Britain by BPCC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
lX
Abbreviations
Xl
Preface Terry E. Lear xiii
Foreword Deirdre Cunningham xvn
Introduction 1
PART ONE
The psychological and social impact of a virus
1. The reversal of meanings, values and attitudes 9
The sinister features of the retrovirus
calledHIV 9
The language around HIVIAIDS
and semantic distortions 11
Values and attitudes 13
v
Vl CONTENTS
2. Anxieties and emotions of individuals affected
by HIV/ARC/AIDS [Observations
by J. Perurena] 19
Before the HIV test result 20
HIV -positive test result 21
The appearance of ARC 23
Diagnosis: AIDS 24
3. The relevance of group analysis 27
The AIDS crisis and group analysis 27
Theoretical assumptions 29
The practice of group-analytic psychotherapy 31
Application to staff support groups 34
4. Healing power and destructive power of groups 37
PART TWO
Group responses to the AIDS crisis:
experiences from a workshop
5. From the first idea to the final format 49
The aims of the workshop 49
The first ideas 50
The way in 51
Towards the final format 54
6. Participants, staff and the spirit of the workshop 57
7. The four talks 61
Introductory talk (by Malcolm Pines) 62
'The power of groups' (by Angela Molnos) 62
'Reactions in and around a hospital's AIDS team'
(by Charles Farthing) 63
'The AIDS crisis and society at large'
(by Antony Grey) 65
CONTENTS Vll
8. The unspeakable emerges from the non-fishbowl 69
The bridge between the small groups
and the workshop as a whole 69
The conductor's personal account 71
The non-fishbowl seen by a participant 75
Other participants' responses 78
Group-analytic considerations 81
9. What happened behind seven closed doors? 85
Composition of the small groups 85
The nature of the reports 88
Reports by group members and conductors 89
A group-analytic overview of the seven
groups 104
10. Facing the darkness in the last plenary session 111
Summary [by S. T. Willis] 111
Extracts 113
11. The participants' evaluation of the workshop 127
Positive aspects of the workshop 127
Negative aspects of the workshop 132
12. Lessons derived from the workshop 135
13. Recommendations 141
PART THREE
Looking towards the future
14. Strange phenomena 147
15. Group-analytic and other group work
in a world that lives with AIDS 155
viii CONTENTS
We are all involved 156
Group versus secrecy and isolation 157
Groups for the carers: sharing the
uncertainties 158
Support group for health advisers at the Praed
Street Clinic [by K. Partridge] 162
The use of non-group-analytic techniques 165
The group-analytic thread 168
Postscript 175
Appendices
Ia Leaflet 179
lb Registration form 181
II Members of staff and speakers 183
III Group conductors' meeting 185
IV Programme for staff 187
V Programme for participants 191
VI Evaluation form 193
References and Bibliography 195
Index 205
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F
or the writing of this book, I was able to use a number
of reports and insightful evaluations of the experien
tial workshop 'Group Responses to the AIDS Crisis'
sent to me by participants and staff members. I wish to
extend my thanks in the first place to Sarah T. Willis for her
substantial contribution. Parts of it appear in this book as
independent chapters. My thanks go to the 37 people who
completed the evaluation form and especially to Dr Althea de
Carteret, Dr Dorothy M. Edwards, Mrs Elizabeth Foulkes,
Mr John Heatley, Mr Peter LaCour, Mrs Anne Mhlongo,
Mrs Brenda Roberts and Mrs Cynthia Rogers for their
detailed and thoughtful accounts.
I acknowledge my indebtedness to all those who so gener
ously shared their experience and knowledge in this field,
including Dr Charles Farthing and members of his team at
St Stephens Hospital, and to Mr Antony Grey, convenor of
the BAC AIDS panel, who helped me to make the first con
tacts, to Julen Perurena as well as Kate Partridge, together
with the other Health Advisers at the Praed Street Clinic, St
Mary's Hospital, for contributing their observations. My
ix