Commentary on “Toward Understanding and Treating Violence in America: Some Contributions From Group Dynamic and Group Therapy Perspectives”

Abstract

We abhor violence—so we say. But we do not, as a nation or as individuals in the United States,1 always act that way. The articulate authors in the collection of articles in the special issues “Toward Understanding and Treating Violence in America: Some Contributions From Group Dynamic and Group Therapy Perspectives,” Parts I and II, of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy (volume 65, numbers 1 and 2) on the subject give the reader a broad perspective from which to view this paradox and the dilemma in which it leaves us. I will organize my commentary into three sections: an overview of the commonality of themes in the articles in both issues, the video review, and the interview; suggestions of ways to address an implicit and, at times, explicit set of questions raised about the problem; and questions that remain unaddressed or unanswered.