OPEN LETTER TO ALL GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPISTS

Abstract

I hope that this letter from an outpost of civilization reaches you and in time for being included in the Journal There are, in my humble opinion, three epochal events this year which mark the global development of group psychotherapy. One is the new edition of "The First Book of Group Psychotherapy” by Moreno, the father and founder of the movement. It blazed the trail for the most promising form of psychotherapy in hundreds of places, hospitals, prisons, schools, churches and settlements. This book has a similar position in the literature of group psychotherapy as "Das Stegreif Theater" in the literature of psychodrama and "Who Shall Survive?" in the literature of sociometry and group dynamics, the three branches comprising today the larger group therapy movement. But it is not merely the republication of a book which is important, it is the celebration of the memorable event of its origin cherished by all senior group therapists: the 31st day of May, 1932 in Philadelphia at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel during the meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. More than one hundred psychotherapists, among them William Alanson White, Franz Alexander, Sandor Lorand, Frederic Wertham, Paul Schroeder, V. C. Branham, Ben Karpman, H. Jennings, and many others, gathered to discuss the principles and applications of group psychotherapy. The climax of the meeting was Dr. William White's spirited conducting of the discussion and Dr. Moreno's summary.