The ten commandments and insights from group psychotherapy

Abstract

Modern developments in psycho therapeutic treatment increasingly tend to stress the use of group approaches for the treatment of many psychiat ric conditions, e.g., group psychotherapy and family psychotherapy. In their writings, group psychotherapists do not usually discuss group for mation and group cohesiveness from a sociological point of view, and even less from a political point of view. Their main interests are the treatment of an individual in the group setting, or an expanding experi ence that encourages self-actualization, or the creation of a therapeutic society. The more particular issue of what makes a group enduringly cohesive and functioning is of much greater importance from a political and even a military point of view. Psychotherapists have small interest in this area; sociologists have discussed it more. But group therapists have by this time accumulated a wealth of experience with groups, their forma tion, structure, function, and endurance. As one works over a period of years with groups and families, it is hard not to form conclusions about what factors make a group viable. These factors seem common to all groups?a treatment group of patients, a family, a class, a peer group, an administrative team, a military group, and even a society.