# Henry Ezriel

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**Henry Ezriel** (c1910-1985) was a [Kleinian](/source/Melanie_Klein) analyst who pioneered group analysis at the [Tavistock Clinic](/source/Tavistock_Clinic).

He is best known as the originator of one of the [Malan triangles](/source/Malan_triangles).

## Training and contributions

Having taken a medical degree from Vienna, Ezriel emigrated to England, to work post-war alongside [W. R. Bion](/source/W._R._Bion) as consultant psychiatrist to the Tavistock.[1] There he developed his method of psychoanalytic group work, expounded in a series of articles in the fifties, and through his personal teaching thereafter.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4] His associate [David Malan](/source/David_Malan_(psychotherapist)) would simplify Ezriel's formulations into his so-called 'triangle of conflict'.[5]

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.[6]

## 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

- [Group therapy](/source/Group_therapy)

- [J. D. Sutherland](/source/J._D._Sutherland)

- [S. H. Foulkes](/source/S._H._Foulkes)

- [Vamik Volkan](/source/Vamik_Volkan)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [David E. Scharff](/source/David_E._Scharff), *Object Relations Theory and Practice* (1996) p. 511

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** David E. Scharff, *Object Relations Theory and Practice* (1996) p. 511

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** I. B. Weiner, *Handbook of Psychology* (2003) p. 348

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** H. Spandler, *Asylum to Action* (2006) p. 74

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** J. P. Gustafson, *The Complex Secret of Brief Psychotherapy* (1997) p. 138

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** L. Horwitz, *Listening with the Fourth Ear* (2014), p. 21

## 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

- [Discussion](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00107530.1972.10745239?journalCode=uucp20)

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