SOME RESERVATIONS REGARDING GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY IN INPATIENT PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT

Abstract

Today we shall list some problems which a hospital treatment situation seems to involve for patients, and indicate how we came to have reservations about the usefulness of one kind of group psychotherapy in relation to several of these problems. By examining group therapy in its larger context in the hospital, we shall illustrate our evolving conception of the hospital as a total social field with which the patient interacts. We refer to the total social field because group therapy, like any other treatment technique used in a psychiatric hospital, should be assessed in terms of the goals of the overall program, the context in which it is applied, and the manner in which its particular influences seem likely to complement or to oppose other significant influences in the patient's whole life situation.