The Meaning of Membership in a Group and the Gifts of Service in a Volunteer Organization

Abstract

The Meaning of Membership in a Group and the Gifts of Service in a Volunteer Organization Jeffrey Roth1 issn 0362-4021 © 2018 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society group, Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2018 59 1 Medical Director, Working Sobriety Chicago, and Lecturer, University of Chicago. Correspondence should be addressed to Jeffrey D. Roth, MD, CGP, FAGPA, FASAM, FAKRI, 25 East Washington Street, Suite 1811, Chicago, IL 60602. E-mail: jrothmd@workingsobriety.com. Although many of us conceive of service as an altruistic function that may distract us from our personal needs, I suggest that service may actually be quite a selfish endeavor that not only ensures our survival but also leads to generativity and abundance , for us and for the groups to which we belong. My day job is addiction psychiatrist and group psychotherapist. I have chosen to treat my patients in groups, based on my belief that addictions, as well as most mental illnesses, are diseases of isolation. We know from the substantial body of knowledge that composes attachment theory that the failure to attach during infancy and childhood results in death or severe disability. Healthy membership in our families of origin prepares us to become members of society, which comprises a variety of groups, each with its own boundaries, roles, authority structure, and tasks. Some of these groups have the primary task of generating income. Service in these groups typically involves taking the role of employee, and the reward for this service is financial. Such groups have boundaries that define who is employed, who is promoted, and who is fired. Different employees are given differentiated tasks that are carried out within a defined authority structure that determines who gets to tell others what they have to do to remain employed. Other groups have a different primary task: that of generating meaning for its members. One such group with which I have had the privilege of becoming acquainted is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). According to AA’s Fifth Tradition, “Each AA group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.” Note that the primary task is not to stop drinking. The boundaries 60 roth of AA are clearly described in the Third Tradition: “The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.” The premise of this idea is that we might learn from the experience of sober alcoholics how to become more effective members of our own professional society. While each of us earns an income from our professional work, and our society collects dues (taxes) to remain solvent, the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) does not have a primary task of generating income. I suggest that our primary task is to carry a message consistent with the ideals that led us to become mental health professionals and group psychotherapists: that mental illness is treatable ; that a knowledge base exists to provide that treatment; and that training in the acquisition of that knowledge is useful, if not essential, in the care of those who suffer. Some of our efforts may understandably be directed toward the community outside of our profession, including allied professions and the general public. What may be less appreciated is the importance of carrying a message to each other. As demand for our services has grown, and reimbursement patterns have shifted to rewarding seeing a larger numbers of patients for less time and less frequently, we may have less and less opportunity to develop ongoing, deep connections with our patients. While our training dictates that the needs of our patients are paramount, a decreasing quality of interaction with our patients may take a toll on us personally. We are certainly encouraged to maintain an active social context of relationships outside of our work, to provide us with such needs for personal attachment, but the nature of our work, which entails boundaries of confidentiality, may set up a barrier for us in connecting our professional and personal worlds. Here is precisely where I suggest that our professional society fills a need, as the middle ground between our professional practices and our social milieu. If we come together to support each other, by creating our own social network of...