TALES OF THE ALTER HOME HASIDIM: A MODERN PSYCHOANALYTIC GROUP IN A NURSING HOME.
Contributors: Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities (U.S.)
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 149
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.; Gerontology.
Description: This study presents the thoughts and feelings of the author based on his experience in meeting weekly for five years with a group of elderly individuals living at the Alter Home. The Home is a nursing home, also known as an extended skilled care facility.

Thirteen sessions are reported in some detail. The methodology of the study is discussed thereafter. Freud's thinking about case histories is considered in the context of more recent work, in particular Spence's work on narrative truth and historical truth. The group as a holding environment is presented as the specific and deepest task the modern analytic group is called upon to fulfill. The group analyst's recognition, understanding and working with the transference relationship within the group are considered. The countertransference of the analyst, its recognition and the resolution of countertransference resistance is discussed. This is done with the understanding that the extent to which the group serves its function as a holding environment is centrally determined by the analyst's resolution of objective and subjective countertransference resistances. The history of the group and group membership is noted. There is discussion with others who have worked with the elderly. Their thoughts and feelings are considered in light of the present work.

Concluding remarks consider the work in the context of the larger question of the analytic relationship and situation. Winnicott's concept of the holding environment and Buber's thoughts on the 'sphere of between' are pointed to as drawing together for some moments the disparateness of five years of work with the sixty individuals who herein tell and retell the Tales of the Alter Home Hasidim.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: B, page: 3708.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNION FOR EXPERIMENTING COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, 1989.

School code: 0557.