Article A Case

The authors of this article consider it self-evident that psychother-apy entails treatment of the mind. This is not generally held and other determinants have been invoked, such as science. Foulkes’s views on the concept of Mind is compared to those of a wide range of authors with the objective of concluding that the mind plays a primary role in psychotherapy. Key words: brain, consciousness, group, mind, soul For the authors of this article, the mind runs like a red thread through the history of mankind and is for most people too hot to handle and therefore becomes trivialized, marginalized or denied. Practically never is it definitively acknowledged since it is in a minority of one which demands moral courage. Physical courage on the other hand is generally met by approval, often with dire consequences, e.g. the heroism of war. After 65 years of clinical experience, Patrick de Maré, joined by Roberto Schöllberger, feel entitled to write about the mind as playing a primary role in therapy. The word itself is derived from the Old Norse ‘Myndig’, meaning vote. It is far older than philosophy or science; indeed it invented them. We began working on this article over two years ago and it is coincidental that it follows up Foulkes’s paper ‘Mind’, published in the September 2003 issue of Group Analysis and which Malcolm Pines unearthed (Foulkes, 2003). Foulkes’s comment is – It may however be permitted for someone like myself who has spent his whole life exploring this mind and thinking about his observations to feel justified in approaching the whole matter afresh. (p. 316