SOCIOMETRIC STRUCTURE AND GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY ON A MENTAL HOSPITAL SERVICE FOR CRIMINALLY INSANE

Abstract

There has been an increasing awareness that in a mental hospital therapy is only in small part that which goes on during the interview hour, and in much larger measure that which results from interpersonal relations on the ward. This has led to a series of studies about spontaneous ward associations of patients. A number of these have been based on sociological observations and interviews with mental hospital patients and personnel (10, 12, 14). Some of these have been concerned with determining the nature of social structure within the hospital (3, 12, 14), while others have stressed the patient interaction process as such, and how it may be studied (6, 7, 12, 14).