Speech to the Graduating Class of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society's Training Program in Group Psychotherapy

Speech to the Graduating Class of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society’s Training Program in Group Psychotherapy1 Jerome Gans2 issn 0362-4021 © 2021 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society group, Vol. 45, No. 1, Fall 2021 7 1 This address was delivered on June 17, 2020. 2 Associate professor of psychiatry, part time, Harvard Medical School; recently retired. Correspondence should be addressed to Jerome S. Gans, MD, 55 Cleveland Road, Wellesley, MA 02481. E-mail: jsgans@comcast.net. Good evening. It is tempting to begin my remarks by picturing a world with outstretched arms welcoming your energy, enthusiasm, and talent. Given the current state of the world, not to mention the New York City area, I would lose all credibility if I began that way. We are dealing with a pandemic infecting millions of people and taking the lives of People of Color at almost twice the rate of White people. And now with George Floyd’s murder by White police, the racism that is in the DNA of our country has been uncovered in its full horror. While the virus and the pervasive inequality between White people and People of Color in our country have been in the headlines, we are still dealing with climate change that is triggering mass migration and xenophobic nationalism. Added to that, on a professional and more immediate level, you all are faced with changing the way you practice—running groups remotely—daunting enough for individual therapy but so much more so for group therapy. The specter has even been raised—given life’s unpredictability—that you might never again see one or more of your patients face to face in real life. I’m here to remind you that everything is not bleak. In fact, it is folks like you that give me hope for the future. Already accomplished, you have decided to get more training. You remain committed to the art and science of healing in a world beset with grief and suffering. As if the effects of the pandemic are not surprising enough in the way they are 8 gans affecting our daily lives, be assured that the world has even more surprises in store for you. But here is the good news. These surprises and some of the inevitable mistakes you will make in dealing with them will be some of the best learning experiences of your careers—if only you remain open to learning from them. Despite these challenges, I’m here to tell you that you are going to have a lot of unanticipated help along the way. Reality, group members, and situations that you could never have choreographed yourself will emerge unbidden and, if not to save the day, to make things a lot better. Dudley was a married father of two who worked in financial services. At 27 he made a financial killing and didn’t hold a job for the next 20 years. For those 20 years he lied to his family, telling them he was going to work when, in fact, while he maintained an office, once there he did no actual work. He had become a highclass bum. An insufferable narcissist, he would throw out questions to the group, the answers to which only he knew best. He seemed impervious to group input and my interventions. But help was on the way. I bill at the end of the month and expect payment within a month. Most of my patients handed me their checks during the group session. Dudley, in contrast, would wait until all the members in the waiting room entered the office and then would hand me his check in the waiting room. It was my practice—to ensure there were no group secrets—to make announcements at the beginning of group about group business that only I and the other persons involved could know about. When I was satisfied that Dudley’s manner of payment was a pattern, not an occasional occurrence, I started a group by commenting on it. Dudley complained about what he felt was a mean-spirited and needless disclosure. Then Ethel made a comment that had never occurred to me: “Dudley, I finally understand why, even though I...