GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY : A Superior Method of Treating Larger Numbers of Neurotic Patients

Four years experience with the group method indicates that it is one which may solve the problem of giving adequate psychiatric care to greater numbers of neurotic patients.

All of the psychotherapeutic methods of individual therapy are utilized, and their effect seems to be increased in the group because contact with other sufferers gives the patient courage and causes him to lose his feelings of isolation. He is inspired by his fellow sufferers to greater effort in his own behalf. As he improves and can offer encouragement to newcomers he gains a sense of being important in the lives of others. These mechanisms seem to give group treatment greater force than individual therapy.

The method permits students to observe and participate in a dynamic psychotherapeutic relationship and has been shown to be of value in military service.

The method will establish psychotherapy as a practical procedure just as the reduction in cost of manufacture of insulin and sulfanilamide has made them readily available.