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In view of the confusing multiplicity of “therapeutic” groups in the mental health field and in the community, group psychotherapy will be viewed in this paper in its narrowest sense, as a specific clinical modality lodged in the broader realm of the psychotherapies. It will refer to a psychosocial process wherein a specially trained human services professional utilizes the emotional interaction in small, carefully constructed groups of effect amelioration of personality dysfunctions in individuals specifically selected for this purpose. A clinical orientation, including a diagnostic assessment of each member's problems and strengths, is a part of this picture. The participants are cognizant of the psychotherapeutic purpose and accept the group modality as a means of obtaining relief from distress and of modifying their pathological modes of functioning.
While I have chosen to deal here only with the contributions of group psychotherapists who adhere to the psychoanalytic model of psychopathology and treatment, it should be kept in mind that almost every “school” of individual psychotherapy has developed its parallel group approaches — among these, transactional, existential, behavioral or Gestalt (Stein, Kibel, Fidler, and Spitz, 1982). Needless to say, and as Anthony (1971) has shown in his historical review of the area, there are marked variations in theory and practice even among the proponents of psychoanalytically geared group psychotherapy.