Sections
Group Therapy: Introduction | Clinical Relevance of Group Therapy | Practical Aspects of Group Therapy: Cost-Effectiveness
and Efficiency | Scope of Current Group Therapy Practice | Therapeutic Factors in Group Therapy: The Interpersonal Focus | The Therapist's Basic Tasks in Group Therapy | Techniques of the Group Therapist | Group Therapy Programs and Managed Care Systems | The Future | Conclusion | Key Points | Suggested Readings | Online Resources | References
Excerpt
Interpersonal relationships are of crucial importance
to human psychological development (Siegel 1999). There
are many psychiatric and therapeutic implications to this simple premise.
Personality and patterns of behavior can be seen as the result of
early interactions with other significant human beings. Modern schools
of dynamic psychotherapy underscore the link between psychopathology
and distorted interpersonal relationships and emphasize that psychiatric
treatment must be directed toward understanding and correcting these
distortions. Although this can of course take place in the context
of the therapist–patient dyad, it is self-evident that
a group of people can serve as an immensely specific therapeutic
tool. In such a group setting, patients are provided with a varied
array of interpersonal relationships that, with proper guidance,
will permit them to identify, explore, and alter maladaptive interpersonal
behavior.