'''Henry Ezriel''' (c1910-1985) was a [[Melanie Klein|Kleinian]] analyst who pioneered group analysis at the [[Tavistock Clinic]].
He is best known as the originator of one of the [[Malan triangles]].
==Training and contributions== Having taken a medical degree from Vienna, Ezriel emigrated to England, to work post-war alongside [[W. R. Bion]] as consultant psychiatrist to the Tavistock.<ref>[[David E. Scharff]], ''Object Relations Theory and Practice'' (1996) p. 511</ref> There he developed his method of psychoanalytic group work, expounded in a series of articles in the fifties, and through his personal teaching thereafter.<ref>David E. Scharff, ''Object Relations Theory and Practice'' (1996) p. 511</ref> His non-directive approached centred on group tensions expressed in the here and now, and on transferences between members, and between members and the group.<ref>I. B. Weiner, ''Handbook of Psychology'' (2003) p. 348</ref>
Ezriel influentially proposed using what he called a “three part interpretation”, including the three key areas of adaptation, desire and anxiety. He highlighted the patient's required or conformist relationship to the group, which was seen as a defence against the wished-for relationship, a defence in turn driven by fear of an imagined catastrophic relationship.<ref>H. Spandler, ''Asylum to Action'' (2006) p. 74</ref> His associate [[David Malan (psychotherapist)|David Malan]] would simplify Ezriel's formulations into his so-called 'triangle of conflict'.<ref>J. P. Gustafson, ''The Complex Secret of Brief Psychotherapy'' (1997) p. 138</ref>
Criticisms of Ezriel's approach included the way his minimalist interventions tended to promote an image of the omniscient therapist, as well as a feeling that individual patients were being neglected by comparison with the group as a whole.<ref>L. Horwitz, ''Listening with the Fourth Ear'' (2014), p. 21</ref>
==Selected writings== Ezriel, H. 'A Psycho-Analytic Approach to Group Treatment' ''British Journal of Medical Psychology'', 23 (1950)
Ezriel, H. 'Notes on psychoanalytic Group therapy: II. Interpretation' ''Research Psychiatry'', 15 (1952)
==See also== {{Columns-list|colwidth=22em| *[[Group therapy]] *[[J. D. Sutherland]] *[[S. H. Foulkes]] *[[Vamik Volkan]] }}
==References== {{Reflist|2|}}
==Further reading== Raphael Springmann, ''Psychotherapy: The Neglected Art'' (2002)
Springmann-Ribak R. Dialogues with Schizophrenia, The Art of Psychotherapy Fifth, revised edition, Wheatmark 2011
==External links== * [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00107530.1972.10745239?journalCode=uucp20 Discussion]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ezriel, Henry}} <!--- Categories ---> [[Category:1985 deaths]] [[Category:Group psychotherapists]] [[Category:Object relations theorists]]