The Challenge for Group Psychotherapy: Present and Future. Stefan Deschill (Ed). New York:  International Universities Press, 1974.  357 pp.

This compilation of ten original papers is a useful addition to the steadily growing group therapy library. Contributions by Slayson, Alexander

Wolf, Durkin, and Krasner provide a solid base of knowledge and expertise. Four of the writers, Battegay, Friedemann, Lebovici, and Spanjaard, are influential European group therapists.

Durkin offers a thoughtful and lucid review of the theoretical premises of psychoanalytic group psychotherapy with requisite regard for modifications required by the group arena. Recognizing the strategic role of the group spokesman, she notes that the group therapist may gear interventions to “an individual who at that point seems to epitomize the major group preoccupation.” In a somewhat abstruse paper Friedemann uses concepts elaborated by Federn to explain the development of “the group ego and consciousness.” He makes a point which is crucial for the selection of patients when he states that “the human capacity for group interaction is formed only when the ego has already assumed relative independence.”

With his characteristic emphasis on specificity and the discriminating applications of the various group approaches to the appropriate patients, Slavson carefully and lucidly examines the use of specific group modalities. Included in his review are the varied forms of group therapy he has elaborated and conceptualized for children and adolescents. Wolf makes a spirited presentation of the rationale, dynamics, and techniques of psychoanalysis in groups. He reiterates his strongly felt position that individual analysis fosters paternalism, whereas the group setting reinforces the individual's interactive relatedness with his peers and dispels the notion that there is “only one omnipotent source of sustenance.” Wolf calls for expanded boundaries for training group analysts to include individuals from sociology, anthropology, and humanistic disciplines.

Battegay describes the varying usages of group treatment in a psychiatric hospital (Basel) a