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S.H. Foulkes's paper concerning the Oedipus situation—published some 40 years ago—is still relevant in current group analytic practice. Main phrases of the Foulkes article, such as 'regression', 'infantile sexuality', 'Oedipus conflict', the 'Sphinx-like mother' and 'transference' are examined. Based on a case report about sexual pairing in group psychotherapy, the author depicts the course of events before analysing the enactment of the protagonists, the role of the group, somatic sufferings during the group process, boundary violations and countertransference factors, and discusses diagnostic and therapeutic implications as well as the need for further research on the special topic in group analytic psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysts have often described their work as depriving, painful, and hard to endure, while its pleasures have been the subject of little commentary. The real history and ongoing temptations of boundary violation long ago made the gratifications of psychoanalytic work a matter of anxiety. Analysts’ pleasure in their work was problematized. Some of this problematizing is necessary because of real risk, but much of it is not only unnecessary but misleading and destructive. Psychoanalysts pursue achievement of a unique form of human intimacy, yet acquired habits of professional modesty and humility have encouraged the illusion that analyzing can occur without desire or ambition on the analyst’s part. These habits have made it difficult for analysts to openly discuss what they get from the intimacy of analyzing that yields its pleasures. Our field demands that analysts deny that the work provides much more than pain (at least until the conclusion of an analysis), but psychoanalysis both misunderstands and misrepresents itself if we cannot speak of the distinctly broad range of pleasures available in analyzing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Professional boundaries are the defining lines that help protect the patient and the nurse practitioner (NP). They continue to be a topic of misunderstanding and under-education. In the professional relationship there is a power differential between the healthcare professional's authority and the patient''s vulnerability. This differential creates the need to keep safe professional boundaries with patients. An NP participates in a dual relationship when he or she is both healthcare provider and friend, business associate, family member, or coworker to a patient. This article aspires to offer clarity and guidance in the areas of dual relationships with patients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The author discusses William Lubart's paper “Hans and Me: Transformation of Revulsion in the Countertransference within an Analytic Therapy.” In the treatment, Hans gives gifts to the therapist, both material and affective, and the therapist's intentional and unintentional responses to these gifts are a critical factor in facilitating their work through impasse in the treatment. After examining the possible meanings and impacts of the various explicit gifts in the treatment, the author considers how, through the process of projective identification, the patient “gives the gift” of his shame to the therapist and how this forces the therapist to attend to it in a manner which helps both the patient and the therapist to grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]