"HISTORIC BACKGROUND OF GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY": A CRITIQUE

Abstract

t is proper and necessary that practitioners and students of group psychotherapy understand its history. The efforts of the several individuals (3), (5), (7), (20) who have undertaken to report group psychotherapy's past may be considered to have several purposes: (a) to give practitioners a sense of community with the continuing movement of the field, (b) to make them aware of prior efforts so that they may make decisions in the light of previous work, ( c) to give credit where credit is due to the various individuals who have made contributions to the development of this area of social action, and ( d) through comprehensive and sophisticated evaluations of group psychotherapy to outline future areas of development. But those who choose to write history have a heavy obligation: they must be well-informed, accurate and objective.