The problem of romance in an analytic group

The phenomenon of two participants falling in love in a group and continuing this love outside the group is not so rare, despite the ‘law’ explicitly forbidding personal contacts in between the group sessions. In this article, I wish to argue that a romance in a group should not be seen only as a phenomenon that occurs between two participants, but also as a transpersonal symptom of the group, a matrix event, and a special sort of ‘relations disorder’. As such, it binds the whole dynamic matrix and should be deciphered, processed and also understood at the group level. When this kind of romance develops in the group, it may lead to a serious crisis in the group, but it can also become an opportunity for individual participants, as well as for the group as a whole, including the conductor, to develop