FORMER PATIENTS REPORT ON LETTER READING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

The letter reading technique in group psychotherapy ( I ) has been used by the writer fundamentally not for lifelong, chronic problems, but rather for symptoms of acute situational maladjustments. Its effectiveness in the chronic type conditions has not been explored as yet. The technique was chosen as the method of therapy out of mere expediency, in as much as it caused much more rapid interaction by the group members. Within the past year and a half five former patients who were hospitalized in a general medical and surgical hospital, have written voluntarily to the writer as to their post-hospital adjustments, and their feelings and attitudes about the letter reading technique as they experienced it while a part of the group psychotherapy program. These former patients were members of a group in the original experiment with this technique. All of their symptoms at the time were of a situational type with psychosomatic manifestations. Most of them exhibited various anxiety symptoms reflecting a sense of insecurity and fear. Negative attitudes were revealed along with hostility and oppositionalism. Their thinking revealed evidence of a regressive tendency as manifested in preoccupation with their symptoms along with a decrease in social responsibility.