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Goldberg's book is a serious and dedicated account in which he defines the meaning and setting of encounters in group sensitivity experiences. He describes the group leader, whom he calls the “consultant,” and elaborates on group processes, group theme, and group moods.
The dynamic sensitivity or encounter groups study behavior in the immediate group situation, the “here and now.” They are not geared to individual needs in the sense that psychoanalytically oriented group psychotherapy deals with the members' problems. The encounter emphasis is on how groups of people get along with each other as groups.
Goldberg states, “People don't enter sensitivity training groups because they are seriously emotionally disturbed, or because they are devoid of social skills.” The stress is not on therapy. Encounter or sensitivity groups rest on the assumption that people lack “internalized identity” and a sense of inner direction in a changed world. Man must find his place in the kaleidoscopic culture in which he lives. Encounter groups view group experiences “as a means of meeting … the continual need for growth and restimulation rather than treatment” (p. 64).
Goldberg expresses “vague” dissatisfaction with his own training in analytic group therapy. He has adopted instead the nondirective approach and practices of Bion, an English psychoanalyst who postulates the existence of a group mentality defined as “the unanimous expression to which individuals contribute anonymously.”
Innovators of new kinds of therapy often feel compelled to derogate psychoanalysis, and this book reflects the same trend.
Individual psychotherapy, particularly of the more psychoanalytic methods, is seen as artificial because it has very little semblance to the patient's life experiences in his everyday world. … Individual therapy, many people feel, takes too long, is too slow for what currently ails them, and is often unexciting … there is not enough give-and-take between patient and therapist to stimulate th