Multi Family Group Analysis-(MFGA)

Psicoanalisis Multifamiliar was created by Jorge Garcia Badaracco in Buenos Aires in the programme of some psychiatric hospitals in the middle of the last century (Badaracco, 2000): patients together with their families meet on a regular basis to foster their treatment. The author suggests the translation of «Psicoanalisis multifamiliar» into Multi Family Group Analysis. This kind of groups was introduced in Portugal by the author in 2001. They were added to the treatment programme of a psychiatric Day Hospital in Lisbon. This Day Hospital has got a psychoanalytic and group analytic framework, since 1977. The author and her team have found Group Analysis, its concepts and training, as a very much important tool to manage these complex groups. Therefore the author has proposed the concept of Multi Family Group Analysis. The author will describe the aims, characteristics and evolution of this kind of groups which have been run since 2001 on a fortnight basis. The basic concepts which underlie them will be referred as well as the results. The author and her team consider that this group is an important therapeutic and prophylactic tool as well as a way of a pre and post graduate training.