Spiegel and Yalom describe a four-year experience with a group of patients having metastatic carcinoma. Curative factors included the sense of helping others while helping oneself and the arousal of hope to overcome concomitant painful emotions such as anger, anxiety, and a sense of isolation. These improvements are largely achieved through peer identification. Self-hypnosis and meditation were taught as supplements. The therapists clarified such major themes as putting dying in perspective, detoxifying dying, coping with the death of group members, the impact of cancer on family, friends, and doctors, and expertise in living acquired by cancer patients. The group work involved both mourning the loss of abilities and involvement in life and focusing on what remained of the time left and how it was spent. Members learned how to face their death more realistically.