Letter from the Coeditors

Abstract

As the Transactional Analysis Journal begins a new phase in its history with the advent ofthe July 2003 issue under cooperative editorship, it seems singularly appropriate that the second issue is dedicated to the use of groups in transactional analysis. Editing this special issue has been a stimulating and satisfying experience for us. As you will find in these pages, group work and evolving theories about groups are alive and well in our community. As we worked on these articles, a natural sequence seemed to develop, just as a group that is working well goes through a natural sequence of development. The opening section is devoted to the use of groups in outpatient clinical settings. Curtis Steele and Nancy Porter-Steele give an excellent overview of what might be termed the classical transactional analysis approach in group treatment using a range ofTA-based interventions. Their article, "OKness-Based Groups," demonstrates the integration ofongoing groups within a professional and training community and the effectiveness of the method they use. Charlotte Sills's article on "Role Lock: When the Whole Group Plays a Game" introduces the concept of"role lock" from focal group conflict theory, applying it to the familiar transactional analysis concept ofenacting games within a group. Sills expands the understanding ofgames in a group from that ofa defensive interplay between two members ofa group to that ofa whole group phenomenon. She also offers detailed case illustrations of interventions with the full group. Laurie Hawkes's article, "The Tango ofTherapy: A Dancing Group," describes her highly original work blending ideas from body therapy, group work, and transactional analysis in a new way that may, at the same time, remind some readers ofthe ideas of"permission classes" from the 1970s and 1980s. Her development of workshops using the Argentine tango as the central means by which cIients explore their relationship to their own bodies and their relationship patterns with others offers a fascinating blend of activities that touch on such issues as movement, pleasure, interpersonal boundaries, gender roles, eroticism, touch, and playful experimentation within a therapeutic milieu. She emphasizes an approach to the body that works with the vitality and fluidity of the adult body and with primary patterns of body process in the here and now. James Allen and Donna Hammond's article, "Groups within Groups: Fractals and the Successes and Failure of a Child Inpatient Psychiatric Unit," describes group work in an inpatient milieu for children. Jenny Robinson's article on "Groups and Group Dynamics in a Therapeutic Community" describes intensive residential treatment for severely disturbed adults. Both articles illustrate how effectively transactional analysis group models are being applied in intensive residential treatment settings. Allen and Hammond present a comprehensive model for the application of transactional analysis in a milieu treatment environment. They offer a detailed case that illustrates the layering and...