Henry Ezriel

Henry Ezriel (c1910-1985) was a 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.David E. Scharff, Object Relations Theory and Practice (1996) p. 511 There he developed his method of psychoanalytic group work, expounded in a series of articles in the fifties, and through his personal teaching thereafter.David E. Scharff, Object Relations Theory and Practice (1996) p. 511 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.I. B. Weiner, Handbook of Psychology (2003) p. 348

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.H. Spandler, Asylum to Action (2006) p. 74 His associate David Malan would simplify Ezriel's formulations into his so-called 'triangle of conflict'.J. P. Gustafson, The Complex Secret of Brief Psychotherapy (1997) p. 138

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.L. Horwitz, Listening with the Fourth Ear (2014), p. 21

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)

Henry Ezriel

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