Group therapy and complexity theory.

Abstract

Complexity theory, also called dynamical self-organizing systems theory, is a new scientific way of viewing the natural world. It is being applied to a vast range of multiply determined systems, as well as to created systems including psychoanalysis, and in this article to analytically informed group therapy. Examples of prominent features of group therapy lend themselves to comparison with outstanding features of complexity systems, including nonlinear determinism, self-organization, coevolution, and disequilibrium conditions for change and growth. Examples are used throughout to illustrate inferred processes called cascading, multisubjectivity, and asynchronous change processes. Therapist role indications are in the direction of implementing the group's own processes of creating change, at close range in the sessions.