THE VERBAL EXCHANGE IN THE THERAPEUTIC GROUP

Abstract

For our patients, who often enough are partially or completely thrown back upon their own resources, (therapeutic) group discussion offers a possibility to escape from themselves and approach the others, to express themselves "as beings in the community" (Friedemann).
It is not only the mentally abnormal today who frequently fail to find a spontaneous contact with their fellow-men. Reciprocal exclusiveness and isolation, rejection of human contact despite the emphasis on "team-work" and community, these appear to be general characteristics of modern humanity. Yet was it not always a temptation to avoid being spoken to, as this might disturb our tranquility, and bring us trouble? This is surely what Martin Buber means when he says, "Each of us is hiding in a suit of armour,
the purpose of which is to protect us from Signs. Signs befall us all the time. Life consists of being spoken to, we only need to stand still and listen. But this is too great a venture for us . . . " If we do not make this venture, however, we are in danger of leaving the capabilities within us unused, of missing our way.