Bekendelsesformer i gruppeterapi for alkoholmisbrugere: En interaktionistisk analyse af en magtteknik

This article explores group therapy at an inpatient treatment facility for alcoholics. Based on an analytical approach which combines Foucault's work on power (1982, 2008) with Coffman's interactionism (1967, 1992), it analyses group therapy sessions as a power technique that is shaped through the face-to-face interaction between the participants. The analytical approach entails an exploration of the various ways power techniques are exercised in practice and their resulting effects. As such, the approach provides a nuanced understanding of how individuals are molded through specific acts of power. The approach is also able to highlight the entwinement of power and knowledge. The analysis explores group therapy as a power technique based on confessions given by the clients. Focusing on three forms of confession, the analysis demonstrates how the forms of confession involve both acts of power and resistance. These forms of confession entail different efforts to change the clients in which the social workers' involvements span from appreciative to confrontational. The acts of resistance target various elements of the confession and shape the exercise of the power technique. This means that clients are shaped as various subjects depending on how they engage in the confessions.