The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

Although this book is a group therapy manual, it is also a concise and integrated summary of group dynamics research, and the author uses data and pragmatic theories taken from his own voluminous works to develop a descriptive model of group therapy.

Abstract

A humorless philosopher might reduce all the world's ills to two words: "personnel problems." Space ship Earth demands that physicians committed to the future learn how to help mankind live with disease as well as with one another. As community medicine focuses more on helping large patient populations, it's clear that the historical lessons of group living are hard to learn. This may be one reason why results of group therapy research have been both muddy and contradictory. In contrast to its predecessors, Dr. Yalom's book is a significant synthetic milestone. Although this book is a group therapy manual, it is also a concise and integrated summary of group dynamics research. The author uses data and pragmatic theories taken from his own voluminous works to develop a descriptive model of group therapy. He defines ascore"those aspects... which are intrinsic to the therapeutic process..." All other facets of any