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Eight, and later five, socially disadvantaged Negro women were treated in group therapy. These women had all suffered from a lack of mothering and the presence of authority figures symbolizing harshness and failure which had produced in them a sense of worthlessness, depression, impaired object relationships, difficulties in reality testing, and impulse control. The first phase of the therapy, designed to strengthen the ego of the patients, involved much activity on the part of the therapist to demonstrate her positive feelings for the members. The group gave them support both on realistic and fantasy levels and the members banded together for mutual mothering. Fifty sessions were required for them to change from passive suspicion to verbal participation.
In the second phase the group, with an enhanced sense of identity in themselves and others, studied their feelings and expressed them. The positive feelings for the therapist and the group alleviated whatever tension this caused. The therapist encouraged consideration of values and goals for the members and their families. The hope of magic, characteristic of the first phase, changed to realistic assessment of the present. Denial, projection, and isolation lessened and were replaced by appropriate anxiety and depression. The members realized they could have an objective attitude toward their experiences. Connections between members' attitudes to their children and their own upbringing was sought.
In the final phase these women contrasted the helpfulness of the group with that of previous therapeutic experiences. Their topics moved from pregenital to a more mature psychosexual theme. The members reacted to the idea of termination with indignant disbelief, followed by separation anxiety, apparently aroused more by the idea of leaving the group than of leaving the therapist. Each of the five showed notable progress in independence and self-direction. Improvement has been maintained during the year since te