Abstract

Foulkes describes a group matrix as the actual and potential web of communications and relations in a given group. Group matrix can also be understood as the maternal function of the group or the formative place and background to the individual growth. Development of the group matrix provides the needed security and enables the repressed, immature parts of the patient’s psychic life to be expressed. Patients with personality disorders are more prone to narcissistic regression in the psychotherapeutic process. In groups with these patients, it is more often than the preverbal, pre-oedipal conflicts arise, such as fantasies of the malignant mothering. These powerful representations, that are based on the early experiences, need to be contained by the group long enough before they can be re-introjected by the patient. The article presents a series of clinical vignettes from the small analytic group, where the archaic fantasies of the omnipotent and murderous mother, The Dragon Woman, got introduced to the group. The article describes how the group members, the group as a whole, the group conductor react and work with that clinical material.