Group Psychotherapy

Soldiers in psychiatric therapy: the case of Northfield military hospital 1942-1946

This article discusses the psychiatric therapeutics of Northfield military psychiatric hospital and suggests that treatment in Northfield was characterised by ideals of citizenship typical of the period and inextricably linked to the military. The two Northfield experiments, for which Northfield has become famous, glorified the group as a social unit and promoted adaptation to the needs and values of society as the route to mental health. In the context of the Second World War, such adaptation meant accepting the duties of a soldier. In the published writings regarding the first Northfield experiment, the psychiatrist Wilfred Bion emphasised his military role in returning patients to their units, a job which he thought was best conducted by men like himself who had experience of leading men into battle. Writing about the second experiment, Tom Main emphasised the importance of including military staff in every aspect of the hospital life from therapy to administration. Some Northfield psychiatrists were less content with this strongly military approach and this led to the conflict which ended the first experiment and continued to spark disagreements throughout the hospital's existence.

Psicoterapia de grupo: como surgiu e evoluiu

Este estudo tem por objetivo oferecer um panorama histórico do surgimento e evolução da psicoterapia de grupo, delineando suas raízes, principais modelos e pressupostos teóricos. Sua origem remonta ao início do século passado (1905), estendendo-se por cerca de cinco décadas: período de configuração e desenvolvimento técnico. Posteriormente, a psicoterapia de grupo passou pela fase de expansão teórica nos anos 50 e 60, seguida da fase de consolidação na década de 70, e de amadurecimento nos anos 80 e 90. Finalmente, examina-se sua evolução recente, dando ênfase especial à construção de novos modelos. Nos últimos anos, diversas técnicas desta modalidade de tratamento têm sido desenvolvidas para atendimento de populações específicas de pacientes, com as mais diversas condições médicas e psicossociais, o que sugere uma tendência crescente rumo a uma maior especificidade de sua aplicação.

Total Push and the Open Total Institution: The Factory-Hospital

The total institutional experience has been looked upon, not as one which prepares a patient or inmate for roles in outside society, but rather as one which actually precludes that possibility. In fact, however, intensive, total-push therapy in an "Open Total Institution" that approximates the open society as much as possible and deliberately breaks down the constraints of the more conventional total institution can sometimes reverse this institutional process. Research with chronically hospitalized schizophrenics illustrates that even the "hopeless" case may be able to reenter the "real world."