Table of Contents
ALSO BY IRVIN D. YALOM
Title Page
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 - THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS
INSTILLATION OF HOPE
UNIVERSALITY
IMPARTING INFORMATION
ALTRUISM
THE CORRECTIVE RECAPITULATIONOF THE PRIMARY
FAMILY GROUP
DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALIZING TECHNIQUES
IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR
Chapter 2 - INTERPERSONAL LEARNING
THE IMPORTANCEOF INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONSHIPS
THE CORRECTIVE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
THE GROUP AS SOCIAL MICROCOSM
THE SOCIAL MICROCOSM: A DYNAMIC
INTERACTION
RECOGNITION OF BEHAVIORALPATTERNS IN
THE SOCIAL MICROCOSM
THE SOCIAL MICROCOSM—IS IT REAL?
OVERVIEW
TRANSFERENCE ANDINSIGHT
Chapter 3 - GROUP COHESIVENESS
THE IMPORTANCEOF GROUP COHESIVENESS
MECHANISM OF ACTION
SUMMARY
Chapter 4 - THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS:
AN INTEGRATION
COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE THERAPEUTIC
FACTORS: THE CLIENT’S
VIEW
COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE THERAPEUTIC
FACTORS: DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN CLIENTS’ AND…
THERAPEUTIC FACTORS: MODIFYING FORCES
Chapter 5 - THE THERAPIST: BASIC TASKS
CREATION ANDMAINTENANCE OF THE GROUP
CULTURE BUILDING
HOW DOES THE LEADER SHAPE NORMS?
EXAMPLES OF THERAPEUTIC GROUP NORMS
Chapter 6 - THE THERAPIST: WORKING IN
THE HERE - AND- NOW
DEFINITION OF PROCESS
PROCESS FOCUS: THE POWER SOURCE OF THE
GROUP
THE THERAPIST’S TASKS IN THE HERE-AND-NOW
TECHNIQUES OF HERE-AND-NOW ACTIVATION
TECHNIQUES OF PROCESS ILLUMINATION
HELPINGCLIENTS ASSUME A PROCESS
ORIENTATION
HELPINGCLIENTS ACCEPT PROCESS-ILLUMINATING
COMMENTS
PROCESS COMMENTARY: A THEORETICAL
OVERVIEW
THE USE OF THE PAST
GROUP - AS - A - WHOLE PROCESS
COMMENTARY
Chapter 7 - THE THERAPIST: TRANSFERENCE
ANDTRANSPARENCY
TRANSFERENCE IN THE THERAPY GROUP
THE PSYCHOTHERAPIST ANDTRANSPARENCY
Chapter 8 - THE SELECTION OF CLIENTS
CRITERIA FOR EXCLUSION
CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION
AN OVERVIEW OF THE SELECTION PROCEDURE
SUMMARY
Chapter 9 - THE COMPOSITION OF THERAPY
GROUPS
THE PREDICTION OF GROUP BEHAVIOR
PRINCIPLES OF GROUP COMPOSITION
OVERVIEW
A FINAL CAVEAT
Chapter 10 - CREATION OF THE GROUP:
PLACE, TIME, SIZE, PREPARATION
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
DURATION ANDFREQUENCY OF MEETINGS
BRIEF GROUP THERAPY
PREPARATION FOR GROUP THERAPY
Chapter 11 - IN THE BEGINNING
FORMATIVE STAGES OF THE GROUP
THE IMPACT OF CLIENTS ON GROUP DEVELOPMENT
MEMBERSHIPPROBLEMS
Chapter 12 - THE ADVANCED GROUP
SUBGROUPING
CONFLICT IN THE THERAPY GROUP
SELF-DISCLOSURE
TERMINATION
Chapter 13 - PROBLEM GROUP MEMBERS
THE MONOPOLIST
THE SILENT CLIENT
THE BORING CLIENT
THE HELP-REJECTING COMPLAINER
THE PSYCHOTIC OR BIPOLARCLIENT
THE CHARACTEROLOGICALLY DIFFICULT CLIENT
Chapter 14 - THE THERAPIST: SPECIALIZED
FORMATS ANDPROCEDURAL
AIDS
CONCURRENT INDIVIDUAL ANDGROUP THERAPY
COMBINING GROUP THERAPY ANDTWELVE-STEP
GROUPS
CO-THERAPISTS
THE LEADERLESS MEETING
DREAMS
AUDIOVISUAL TECHNOLOGY
WRITTEN SUMMARIES
GROUP THERAPY RECORD KEEPING
STRUCTURED EXERCISES
Chapter 15 - SPECIALIZED THERAPY GROUPS
MODIFICATION OF TRADITIONAL GROUP
THERAPY FOR SPECIALIZED
CLINICAL SITUATIONS: …
THE ACUTE INPATIENT THERAPY GROUP
GROUPS FOR THE MEDICALLY ILL
ADAPTATION OF CBT ANDIPT TO GROUP THERAPY
SELF-HELP GROUPS ANDINTERNET SUPPORT
GROUPS
Chapter 16 - GROUP THERAPY: ANCESTORS
ANDCOUSINS
WHAT IS AN ENCOUNTER GROUP?
ANTECEDENTS ANDEVOLUTION OF THE
ENCOUNTER GROUP
GROUP THERAPY FOR NORMALS
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ENCOUNTER GROUP
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ENCOUNTER
GROUP ANDTHE
THERAPY GROUP
Chapter 17 - TRAINING THE GROUP THERAPIST
OBSERVATION OF EXPERIENCED CLINICIANS
SUPERVISION
A GROUP EXPERIENCE FOR TRAINEES
PERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
SUMMARY
BEYOND TECHNIQUE
Appendix - Information and Guidelines for
Participation in Group Therapy
Notes
Index
Copyright Page
ALSO BY IRVIN D. YALOM
Existential Psychotherapy
Every Day Gets a Little Closer: A Twice-Told
Therapy
(with Ginny Elkin)
Encounter Groups: First Facts
(with Morton A. Lieberman and Matthew B.
Miles)
Inpatient Group Psychotherapy
Concise Guide to Group Psychotherapy
(with Sophia Vinogradov)
Love’s Executioner
When Nietzsche Wept
Lying on the Couch
Momma and the Meaning of Life
The Gift of Therapy
The Schopenhauer Cure
ALSO BY MOLYN LESZCZ
Treating the Elderly with Psychotherapy:
The Scope for Change in Later Life
(with Joel Sadavoy)
To the memory of my mother and father, RUTH
YALOM and BENJAMIN YALOM
To the memory of my mother and father,
CLARA LESZCZ and SAUL LESZCZ
Preface to the Fifth Edition
For this fifth edition of The Theory and Practice of
Psychotherapy I have had the good
fortune of having Molyn Leszcz as my
collaborator. Dr. Leszcz, whom I first met in
1980
when he spent a yearlong fellowship in
group therapy with me at Stanford University,
has
been a major contributor to research and clinical
innovation in group therapy. For the past
twelve years, he has directed one of the largest
group therapy training programs in the
world in the Department of Psychiatry at
the University of Toronto, where he is an
associate professor. His broad knowledge of
contemporary group practice and his
exhaustive review of the research and clinical
literature were invaluable to the preparation
of this volume. We worked diligently, like co-
therapists, to make this edition a seamless
integration of new and old material. Although for
stylistic integrity we opted to retain the
first-person singular in this text, behind the “I”
thereis always a collaborative “we.”
Our task in this new edition was to incorporate
the many new changes in the field and to
jettison outmoded ideasand methods. But we had a
dilemma: What if someof the changes
in the field do not represent advances but, instead,
retrogression? What if marketplace
considerations demanding quicker, cheaper, more
efficient methods act against the best
interests of the client? And what if “efficiency” is
but a euphemism for shedding clients
from the fiscal rolls as quickly as possible? And
what if thesediverse market factors force
therapists to offer less than they are capable of
offering their clients?
If thesesuppositions are true, then the requirements of
this revision become far more
complex because we have a dual task: not only to
present current methods and prepare
student therapists for the contemporary workplace,
but also to preserve the accumulated
wisdom and techniques of our field even if some
young therapists will not have immediate
opportunities to apply them.
Since group therapy was first introduced in
the 1940s, it has undergone a series of
adaptations to meet the changing face of clinical
practice. As new clinical syndromes,
settings, and theoretical approaches have
emerged, so have corresponding variants of
group therapy. The multiplicity of forms is so
evident today that it makes more sense to
speak of “group therapies” than of “group
therapy.” Groups for panic disorder, groups
for
acute and chronic depression, groups to
prevent depression relapse, groups for eating
disorders, medical support groups for patients with
cancer, HIV/AIDS, rheumatoid
arthritis, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel syndrome,
obesity, myocardial infarction,
paraplegia, diabetic blindness, renalfailure, bone marrow
transplant, Parkinson’s, groups
for healthy men and women who carrygenetic
mutations that predispose them to develop
cancer, groups for victims of sexual abuse,
for the confused elderly and for their
caregivers, for clients with obsessive-compulsive
disorder, first-episode schizophrenia, for
chronic schizophrenia, for adult children of
alcoholics, for parents of sexually abused
children, for male batterers, for self-mutilators,
for the divorced, for the bereaved, for
disturbed families, for married couples—all of these,
and many more, are forms of group
therapy.
The clinical settings of group therapy are also
diverse: a rapid turnover group for
chronically or acutely psychotic patients on a
stark hospital ward is group therapy, and so
are groups for imprisoned sex offenders, groups
for residents of a shelter for battered
women, and open-ended groups of relatively well
functioning individuals with neurotic or
personality disorders meeting in the well-appointed
private office of a psychotherapist.
And the technical approaches are bewilderingly
different: cognitive-behavioral,
psychoeducational, interpersonal, gestalt, supportive-
expressive, psychoanalytic, dynamic-
interactional, psychodrama—all of these, and many
more, are used in group therapy.
This family gathering of group therapies is
swollen even more by the presence of
distant cousins to therapy groups entering the
room: experiential classroom training
groups (or process groups) and the numerous self-
help (or mutual support) groups like
Alcoholics Anonymous and othertwelve-step
recovery groups, Adult Survivors of Incest,
Sex Addicts Anonymous, Parents of Murdered
Children, Overeaters Anonymous, and
Recovery, Inc. Although thesegroups are not formal
therapy groups, they are very often
therapeutic and straddle the blurred borders
between personal growth, support, education,
and therapy (see chapter 16 for a detailed
discussion of this topic). And we must also
consider the youngest, most rambunctious, and most
unpredictable of the cousins: the
Internet support groups, offered in a rainbow of
flavors.
How, then, to writea single book that addresses all
thesegroup therapies? The strategy
I chose thirty-fiveyears ago when I wrote
the first edition of this book seems sound to
me
still. My first step was to separate “front” from “core”
in each of the group therapies. The
front consists of the trappings, the form, the
techniques, the specialized language, and the
aura surrounding each of the ideological schools;
the core consists of those aspects of the
experience that are intrinsic to the therapeutic
process—that is, the bare-boned
mechanisms of change.
If you disregard the “front” and consider only the
actual mechanisms of effecting
change in the client, you will find that the change
mechanisms are limited in number and
are remarkably similar across groups. Therapy
groups with similar goals that appear
wildly different in external form may rely on
identical mechanisms of change.
In the first two editions of this book, caught up
in the positivistic zeitgeist surrounding
the developing psychotherapies, I referred to
thesemechanisms of change as “curative
factors.” Educated and humbled by the passing years,
I know now that the harvest of
psychotherapy is not cure—surely, in our field,
that is an illusion—but instead change or
growth. Hence, yielding to the dictates of reality,
I now refer to the mechanisms of change
as “therapeutic factors” rather than “curative
factors.”
The therapeutic factors constitute the central
organizing principle of this book. I begin
with a detailed discussion of eleven therapeutic
factors and then describe a
psychotherapeutic approach that is based on them.
But which types of groups to discuss? The
arrayof group therapies is now so vast that it
is impossible for a text to address each type of
group separately. How then to proceed? I
have chosen in this book to center my
discussion around a prototypic type of group
therapy and then to offer a set of principles that
will enable the therapist to modify this
fundamental group model to fit any specialized
clinical situation.
The prototypical model is the intensive,
heterogeneously composed outpatient
psychotherapy group, meeting for at least several
months, with the ambitious goals of both
symptomatic relief and personality change. Why
focus on this particular form of group
therapy when the contemporary therapy scene,
driven by economic factors, is dominated
by another type of group—a homogeneous, symptom-
oriented group that meets for briefer
periods and has more limited goals?
The answer is that long-term group therapy has
been around for many decades and has
accumulated a vast body of knowledge from
both empirical research and thoughtful
clinical observation. Earlier I alluded to
contemporary therapists not often having the
clinical opportunities to do their best work; I
believe that the prototypical group we
describe in this book is the setting in which
therapists can offer maximum benefit to their
clients. It is an intensive, ambitious form of therapy
that demands much from both client
and therapist. The therapeutic strategies and techniques
required to lead such a group are
sophisticated and complex. However, once students master
them and understand how to
modify them to fit specialized therapy situations,
they will be in a position to fashion a
group therapy that will be effective for any clinical
population in any setting. Trainees
should aspire to be creative and compassionate
therapists with conceptual depth, not
laborers with little vision and less morale.
Managed care emphatically views group
therapy as the treatment modality of the future.
Group therapists must be as prepared as
possible for this opportunity.
Because most readers of this book are clinicians,
the text is intended to have immediate
clinical relevance.I also believe, however, that it is
imperative for clinicians to remain
conversant with the world of research. Even if
therapists do not personally engage in
research, they must know how to evaluate the
research of others. Accordingly, the text
relies heavily on relevant clinical, social, and
psychological research.
While searching through library stacks during
the writing of earlyeditions of this book,
I often found myself browsing in antiquated
psychiatric texts. How unsettling it is
to
realize that the devotees of such therapy endeavors as
hydrotherapy, rest cures, lobotomy,
and insulin coma were obviously clinicians of high
intelligence, dedication, and integrity.
The same may be said of earlier generations of
therapists who advocated venesection,
starvation, purgation,and trephination. Their texts
are as well written, their optimism as
unbridled,and their reported results as impressive as
those of contemporary practitioners.
Question: why have otherhealth-care fields left
treatment of psychological disturbance
so far behind? Answer: because they have applied
the principles of the scientific method.
Without a rigorous research base,the psychotherapists
of today who are enthusiastic about
current treatments are tragically similar to the
hydrotherapists and lobotomists of
yesteryear. As long as we do not test basic
principles and treatment outcomes with
scientific rigor, our field remains at the mercy of
passing fads and fashions. Therefore,
whenever possible, the approach presented in this text is
based on rigorous, relevant
research, and attention is called to areas in
which further research seems especially
necessary and feasible. Some areas(for example,
preparation for group therapy and the
reasons for group dropouts) have been widely and
competently studied, while otherareas
(for example, “working through” or countertransference)
have only recently been touched
by research. Naturally, this distribution of research
emphasis is reflected in the text: some
chapters may appear, to clinicians, to stress
research too heavily, while otherchapters may
appear, to research-minded colleagues, to lack
rigor.
Let us not expect more of psychotherapy research
than it can deliver. Will the findings
of psychotherapy research affect a rapidmajor
change in therapy practice? Probably not.
Why? “Resistance” is one reason. Complex systems
of therapy with adherents who have
spent many years in training and
apprenticeship and cling stubbornly to tradition
will
change slowly and only in the face of very
substantial evidence. Furthermore, front-line
therapists faced with suffering clients obviously cannot
wait for science. Also, keep in
mind the economics of research. The marketplace
controls the focus of research. When
managed-care economics dictated a massive swing
to brief, symptom-oriented therapy,
reports from a multitude of well-funded research
projects on brief therapy began to appear
in the literature. At the same time,the bottom
dropped out of funding sources for research
on longer-term therapy, despite a strong clinical
consensus about the importance of such
research. In time we expect that this trendwill be
reversed and that more investigation of
the effectiveness of psychotherapy in the real world
of practice will be undertaken to
supplement the knowledge accruing from randomized
controlled trialsof brief therapy.
Another consideration is that, unlike in the
physical sciences, many aspects of
psychotherapy inherently defy quantification.
Psychotherapy is both art and science;
research findings may ultimately shape the broad
contours of practice, but the human
encounter at the center of therapy will always
be a deeply subjective, nonquantifiable
experience.
One of the most important underlying
assumptions in this text is that interpersonal
interaction within the here-and-now is crucial to
effective group therapy. The truly potent
therapy group first provides an arena in which
clients can interact freely with others, then
helps them identify and understand what goes wrong
in their interactions, and ultimately
enables them to change those maladaptive
patterns. We believe that groups based solely
on
otherassumptions, such as psychoeducational or
cognitive-behavioral principles, fail to
reap the full therapeutic harvest. Each of theseforms
of group therapy can be made even
more effective by incorporating an awareness of
interpersonal process.
This pointneeds emphasis: It has greatrelevance for
the future of clinical practice. The
advent of managed care will ultimately result in
increased use of therapy groups. But, in
their quest for efficiency, brevity, and
accountability, managed-care decision makers may
make the mistake of decreeing that somedistinct
orientations (brief, cognitive-behavioral,
symptom-focused) are more desirable because their
approach encompasses a series of
stepsconsistent with otherefficient medical approaches:
the setting of explicit, limited
goals; the measuringof goal attainment at regular,
frequent intervals; a highly specific
treatment plan;and a replicable, uniform, manual-
driven, highly structured therapy with a
precise protocol for each session. But do not mistake
the appearance of efficiency for true
effectiveness.
In this text we discuss, in depth, the extent
and nature of the interactional focus and its
potency in bringing about significant character
and interpersonal change. The interactional
focus is the engine of group therapy, and
therapists who are able to harness it are much
better equipped to do all forms of group
therapy, even if the group model does
not
emphasize or acknowledge the centrality of
interaction.
Initially I was not eager to undertake the
considerable task of revising this text. The
theoretical foundations and technical approach to
group therapy described in the fourth
edition remain sound and useful. But a book in
an evolving field is bound to age sooner
than later, and the last edition was losing someof
its currency. Not only did it contain
dated or anachronistic allusions, but also the field
has changed. Managed care has settled
in by now, DSM-IV has undergone a text
revision (DSM-IV-TR), and a decade of clinical
and research literature needed to be reviewed and
assimilated into the text. Furthermore,
new types of groups have sprung up and others
have faded away. Cognitive-behavioral,
psychoeducational, and problem-specific brief
therapy groups are becoming more
common, so in this revision we have made a
special effort throughout to address the
particular issues germane to thesegroups.
The first four chapters of this text discuss eleven
therapeutic factors. Chapter 1 covers
instillation of hope, universality, imparting
information, altruism, the corrective
recapitulation of the primary family group, the
development of socializing techniques, and
imitative behavior. Chapters 2 and 3 present the
more complex and powerful factors of
interpersonal learning and cohesiveness. Recent
advances in our understanding of
interpersonal theory and the therapeutic alliance
that can strengthen therapist effectiveness
have influenced our approach to thesetwo chapters.
Chapter 4 discusses catharsis and existential factors
and then attempts a synthesis by
addressing the comparative importance and the
interdependence of all eleven therapeutic
factors.
The next two chapters address the work of the
therapist. Chapter 5 discusses the tasksof
the group therapist—especially those germane to
shaping a therapeutic group culture and
harnessing the group interaction for therapeutic
benefit. Chapter 6 describes how the
therapist must first activate the here-and-now (that
is, plunge the group into its own
experience) and then illuminate the meaning of
the here-and-now experience. In this
edition we deemphasize certain models that rely on
the elucidation of group-as-a-whole
dynamics (for example, the Tavistock approach)—
models that have since proven
ineffective in the therapy process. (Some
omitted material that may still interest some
readers will remain available at www.yalom.com.)
While chapters 5 and 6 address what the
therapist must do, chapter 7 addresses how the
therapist must be. It explicates the therapist’s
role and the therapist’s use of self by
focusing on two fundamental issues: transference
and transparency. In previous editions, I
felt compelledto encourage therapist restraint: Many
therapists were still so influenced by
the encounter group movement that they, too
frequentlyand too extensively, “let it all
hang out.” Times have changed; more conservative forces
have taken hold,and now we
feel compelled to discourage therapists from
practicing too defensively. Many
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contemporary therapists, threatened by the
encroachment of the legal profession into the
field (a result of the irresponsibility and misconduct
of sometherapists, coupled with a
reckless and greedy malpractice industry), have
grown too cautious and impersonal.
Hence we give much attention to the use of
the therapist’s self in psychotherapy.
Chapters 8 through 14 present a chronological
view of the therapy group and emphasize
group phenomena and techniques that are
relevant to each stage. Chapters 8 and 9, on
client selection and group composition, include
new research data on group therapy
attendance, dropouts, and outcomes. Chapter 10, which
describes the practical realities of
beginning a group, includes a lengthy new section
on brief group therapy, presents much
new research on the preparation of the client
for group therapy. The appendix contains a
document to distribute to new members to help prepare
them for their work in the therapy
group.
Chapter 11 addresses the earlystages of the therapy
group and includes new material on
dealing with the therapy dropout. Chapter 12 deals
with phenomena encountered in the
mature phase of the group therapy work:
subgrouping, conflict, self-disclosure, and
termination.
Chapter 13, on problem members in group
therapy, adds new material to reflect
advances in interpersonal theory. It discusses the
contributions of intersubjectivity,
attachment theory, and self psychology. Chapter 14
discusses specialized techniques of the
therapist, including concurrent individual and group
therapy (both combined and
conjoint), co-therapy, leaderless meetings, dreams,
videotaping, and structured exercises,
the use of the written summary in group
therapy, and the integration of group therapy
and
twelve-step programs.
Chapter 15, on specialized therapy groups,
addresses the many new groups that have
emerged to deal with specific clinical syndromes or
clinical situations. It presents the
critically important principles used to modify traditional
group therapy technique in order
to design a group to meet the needs of
otherspecialized clinical situations and populations,
and describes the adaptation of cognitive-behavioral
and interpersonal therapy to groups.
These principles are illustrated by in-depth
discussions of various groups, such as the
acute psychiatric inpatient group and groups
for the medically ill (with a detailed
illustration of a group for patients with
cancer). Chapter 15 also discusses self-help groups
and the youngest member of the group therapy
family—the Internet support group.
Chapter 16, on the encounter group, presented
the single greatest challenge for this
revision. Because the encounter group qua encounter
group has faded from contemporary
culture, we considered omitting the chapter
entirely. However, several factors argue
against an earlyburial: the important role played by
the encounter movementgroups in
developing research technology and the use of
encounter groups (also known as process
groups, T-groups (for “training”), or experiential
training groups) in group psychotherapy
education. Our compromise was to shorten the
chapter considerably and to make the entire
fourth edition chapter available at www.yalom.com
for readers who are interested in the
history and evolution of the encounter movement.
Chapter 17, on the training of group therapists,
includes new approaches to the
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supervision process and on the use of process
groups in the educational curriculum.
During the four years of preparing this revision I
was also engaged in writing a novel,
The Schopenhauer Cure, which may serve as a
companion volume to this text: It is set in
a
therapy group and illustrates many of the
principles of group process and therapist
technique offered in this text. Hence, at several
points in this fifth edition, I refer the
reader to particular pages in The Schopenhauer
Cure that offer fictionalized portrayals of
therapist techniques.
Excessively overweight volumes tend to gravitate to
the “reference book” shelves. To
avoid that fate we have resisted lengthening this
text. The addition of much new material
has mandated the painful task of cutting older
sections and citations. (I left my writing
desk dailywith fingers stained by the blood of
many condemned passages.)To increase
readability, we consigned almost all details and
critiques of research method to footnotes
or to notes at the end of the book. The
review of the last ten years of group
therapy
literature has been exhaustive.
Mostchapters contain 50–100 new references. In
several locations throughout the book,
we have placed a dagger (†) to indicate that
corroborative observations or data exist for
suggested current readings for students interested in
that particular area. This list of
referencesand suggested readings has been placed on
my website, www.yalom.com.
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Acknowledgments
(Irvin Yalom)
I am grateful to Stanford University for
providing the academic freedom, library
facilities, and administrative staff necessary to
accomplish this work. To a masterful
mentor, Jerome Frank (who died just before the
publication of this edition), my thanks for
having introduced me to group therapy and
for having offered a model of integrity,
curiosity, and dedication. Several have assisted in
this revision: Stephanie Brown, Ph.D.
(on twelve-step groups), Morton Lieberman, Ph.D.
(on Internet groups), Ruthellen
Josselson, Ph.D. (on group-as-a-whole interventions),
David Spiegel (on medical groups),
and my son Ben Yalom, who edited several
chapters.
(Molyn Leszcz)
I am grateful to the University of Toronto
Department of Psychiatry for its support in
this project. Toronto colleagues who have made
comments on drafts of this edition and
facilitated its completion include Joel Sadavoy, M.D.,
Don Wasylenki, M.D., Danny
Silver, M.D., Paula Ravitz, M.D., Zindel
Segal, Ph.D., Paul Westlind, M.D., Ellen
Margolese, M.D., Jan Malat, M.D., and Jon
Hunter, M.D.Liz Konigshaus handled the
painstaking task of word-processing, with enormous
efficiency and unyielding good
nature. Benjamin, Talia, and Noah Leszcz,
my children, and Bonny Leszcz, my wife,
contributed insight and encouragement throughout.
Chapter 1
THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS
Does group therapy help clients? Indeed it does.
A persuasive body of outcome research
has demonstrated unequivocally that group therapy is
a highly effective form of
psychotherapy and that it is at least equal to
individual psychotherapy in its power to
provide meaningful benefit.1
…

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TableofContentsALSOBYIRVIND.Y.docx

  • 1. Table of Contents ALSO BY IRVIN D. YALOM Title Page Dedication Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1 - THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS INSTILLATION OF HOPE UNIVERSALITY IMPARTING INFORMATION
  • 2. ALTRUISM THE CORRECTIVE RECAPITULATIONOF THE PRIMARY FAMILY GROUP DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALIZING TECHNIQUES IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Chapter 2 - INTERPERSONAL LEARNING THE IMPORTANCEOF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS THE CORRECTIVE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE THE GROUP AS SOCIAL MICROCOSM THE SOCIAL MICROCOSM: A DYNAMIC INTERACTION RECOGNITION OF BEHAVIORALPATTERNS IN THE SOCIAL MICROCOSM THE SOCIAL MICROCOSM—IS IT REAL? OVERVIEW TRANSFERENCE ANDINSIGHT Chapter 3 - GROUP COHESIVENESS THE IMPORTANCEOF GROUP COHESIVENESS
  • 3. MECHANISM OF ACTION SUMMARY Chapter 4 - THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS: AN INTEGRATION COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS: THE CLIENT’S VIEW COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CLIENTS’ AND… THERAPEUTIC FACTORS: MODIFYING FORCES Chapter 5 - THE THERAPIST: BASIC TASKS CREATION ANDMAINTENANCE OF THE GROUP CULTURE BUILDING HOW DOES THE LEADER SHAPE NORMS? EXAMPLES OF THERAPEUTIC GROUP NORMS Chapter 6 - THE THERAPIST: WORKING IN THE HERE - AND- NOW DEFINITION OF PROCESS
  • 4. PROCESS FOCUS: THE POWER SOURCE OF THE GROUP THE THERAPIST’S TASKS IN THE HERE-AND-NOW TECHNIQUES OF HERE-AND-NOW ACTIVATION TECHNIQUES OF PROCESS ILLUMINATION HELPINGCLIENTS ASSUME A PROCESS ORIENTATION HELPINGCLIENTS ACCEPT PROCESS-ILLUMINATING COMMENTS PROCESS COMMENTARY: A THEORETICAL OVERVIEW THE USE OF THE PAST GROUP - AS - A - WHOLE PROCESS COMMENTARY Chapter 7 - THE THERAPIST: TRANSFERENCE ANDTRANSPARENCY TRANSFERENCE IN THE THERAPY GROUP THE PSYCHOTHERAPIST ANDTRANSPARENCY Chapter 8 - THE SELECTION OF CLIENTS
  • 5. CRITERIA FOR EXCLUSION CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION AN OVERVIEW OF THE SELECTION PROCEDURE SUMMARY Chapter 9 - THE COMPOSITION OF THERAPY GROUPS THE PREDICTION OF GROUP BEHAVIOR PRINCIPLES OF GROUP COMPOSITION OVERVIEW A FINAL CAVEAT Chapter 10 - CREATION OF THE GROUP: PLACE, TIME, SIZE, PREPARATION PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS DURATION ANDFREQUENCY OF MEETINGS BRIEF GROUP THERAPY PREPARATION FOR GROUP THERAPY Chapter 11 - IN THE BEGINNING
  • 6. FORMATIVE STAGES OF THE GROUP THE IMPACT OF CLIENTS ON GROUP DEVELOPMENT MEMBERSHIPPROBLEMS Chapter 12 - THE ADVANCED GROUP SUBGROUPING CONFLICT IN THE THERAPY GROUP SELF-DISCLOSURE TERMINATION Chapter 13 - PROBLEM GROUP MEMBERS THE MONOPOLIST THE SILENT CLIENT THE BORING CLIENT THE HELP-REJECTING COMPLAINER THE PSYCHOTIC OR BIPOLARCLIENT THE CHARACTEROLOGICALLY DIFFICULT CLIENT Chapter 14 - THE THERAPIST: SPECIALIZED
  • 7. FORMATS ANDPROCEDURAL AIDS CONCURRENT INDIVIDUAL ANDGROUP THERAPY COMBINING GROUP THERAPY ANDTWELVE-STEP GROUPS CO-THERAPISTS THE LEADERLESS MEETING DREAMS AUDIOVISUAL TECHNOLOGY WRITTEN SUMMARIES GROUP THERAPY RECORD KEEPING STRUCTURED EXERCISES Chapter 15 - SPECIALIZED THERAPY GROUPS MODIFICATION OF TRADITIONAL GROUP THERAPY FOR SPECIALIZED CLINICAL SITUATIONS: … THE ACUTE INPATIENT THERAPY GROUP GROUPS FOR THE MEDICALLY ILL ADAPTATION OF CBT ANDIPT TO GROUP THERAPY SELF-HELP GROUPS ANDINTERNET SUPPORT
  • 8. GROUPS Chapter 16 - GROUP THERAPY: ANCESTORS ANDCOUSINS WHAT IS AN ENCOUNTER GROUP? ANTECEDENTS ANDEVOLUTION OF THE ENCOUNTER GROUP GROUP THERAPY FOR NORMALS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ENCOUNTER GROUP THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ENCOUNTER GROUP ANDTHE THERAPY GROUP Chapter 17 - TRAINING THE GROUP THERAPIST OBSERVATION OF EXPERIENCED CLINICIANS SUPERVISION A GROUP EXPERIENCE FOR TRAINEES PERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY SUMMARY BEYOND TECHNIQUE
  • 9. Appendix - Information and Guidelines for Participation in Group Therapy Notes Index Copyright Page ALSO BY IRVIN D. YALOM Existential Psychotherapy Every Day Gets a Little Closer: A Twice-Told Therapy (with Ginny Elkin) Encounter Groups: First Facts (with Morton A. Lieberman and Matthew B. Miles) Inpatient Group Psychotherapy Concise Guide to Group Psychotherapy (with Sophia Vinogradov) Love’s Executioner When Nietzsche Wept Lying on the Couch Momma and the Meaning of Life The Gift of Therapy The Schopenhauer Cure
  • 10. ALSO BY MOLYN LESZCZ Treating the Elderly with Psychotherapy: The Scope for Change in Later Life (with Joel Sadavoy) To the memory of my mother and father, RUTH YALOM and BENJAMIN YALOM To the memory of my mother and father, CLARA LESZCZ and SAUL LESZCZ Preface to the Fifth Edition For this fifth edition of The Theory and Practice of Psychotherapy I have had the good fortune of having Molyn Leszcz as my collaborator. Dr. Leszcz, whom I first met in 1980 when he spent a yearlong fellowship in group therapy with me at Stanford University, has been a major contributor to research and clinical innovation in group therapy. For the past twelve years, he has directed one of the largest group therapy training programs in the
  • 11. world in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, where he is an associate professor. His broad knowledge of contemporary group practice and his exhaustive review of the research and clinical literature were invaluable to the preparation of this volume. We worked diligently, like co- therapists, to make this edition a seamless integration of new and old material. Although for stylistic integrity we opted to retain the first-person singular in this text, behind the “I” thereis always a collaborative “we.” Our task in this new edition was to incorporate the many new changes in the field and to jettison outmoded ideasand methods. But we had a dilemma: What if someof the changes in the field do not represent advances but, instead, retrogression? What if marketplace considerations demanding quicker, cheaper, more efficient methods act against the best interests of the client? And what if “efficiency” is but a euphemism for shedding clients from the fiscal rolls as quickly as possible? And what if thesediverse market factors force therapists to offer less than they are capable of offering their clients? If thesesuppositions are true, then the requirements of this revision become far more complex because we have a dual task: not only to present current methods and prepare student therapists for the contemporary workplace, but also to preserve the accumulated wisdom and techniques of our field even if some young therapists will not have immediate
  • 12. opportunities to apply them. Since group therapy was first introduced in the 1940s, it has undergone a series of adaptations to meet the changing face of clinical practice. As new clinical syndromes, settings, and theoretical approaches have emerged, so have corresponding variants of group therapy. The multiplicity of forms is so evident today that it makes more sense to speak of “group therapies” than of “group therapy.” Groups for panic disorder, groups for acute and chronic depression, groups to prevent depression relapse, groups for eating disorders, medical support groups for patients with cancer, HIV/AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel syndrome, obesity, myocardial infarction, paraplegia, diabetic blindness, renalfailure, bone marrow transplant, Parkinson’s, groups for healthy men and women who carrygenetic mutations that predispose them to develop cancer, groups for victims of sexual abuse, for the confused elderly and for their caregivers, for clients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, first-episode schizophrenia, for chronic schizophrenia, for adult children of alcoholics, for parents of sexually abused children, for male batterers, for self-mutilators, for the divorced, for the bereaved, for disturbed families, for married couples—all of these, and many more, are forms of group therapy. The clinical settings of group therapy are also
  • 13. diverse: a rapid turnover group for chronically or acutely psychotic patients on a stark hospital ward is group therapy, and so are groups for imprisoned sex offenders, groups for residents of a shelter for battered women, and open-ended groups of relatively well functioning individuals with neurotic or personality disorders meeting in the well-appointed private office of a psychotherapist. And the technical approaches are bewilderingly different: cognitive-behavioral, psychoeducational, interpersonal, gestalt, supportive- expressive, psychoanalytic, dynamic- interactional, psychodrama—all of these, and many more, are used in group therapy. This family gathering of group therapies is swollen even more by the presence of distant cousins to therapy groups entering the room: experiential classroom training groups (or process groups) and the numerous self- help (or mutual support) groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and othertwelve-step recovery groups, Adult Survivors of Incest, Sex Addicts Anonymous, Parents of Murdered Children, Overeaters Anonymous, and Recovery, Inc. Although thesegroups are not formal therapy groups, they are very often therapeutic and straddle the blurred borders between personal growth, support, education, and therapy (see chapter 16 for a detailed discussion of this topic). And we must also
  • 14. consider the youngest, most rambunctious, and most unpredictable of the cousins: the Internet support groups, offered in a rainbow of flavors. How, then, to writea single book that addresses all thesegroup therapies? The strategy I chose thirty-fiveyears ago when I wrote the first edition of this book seems sound to me still. My first step was to separate “front” from “core” in each of the group therapies. The front consists of the trappings, the form, the techniques, the specialized language, and the aura surrounding each of the ideological schools; the core consists of those aspects of the experience that are intrinsic to the therapeutic process—that is, the bare-boned mechanisms of change. If you disregard the “front” and consider only the actual mechanisms of effecting change in the client, you will find that the change mechanisms are limited in number and are remarkably similar across groups. Therapy groups with similar goals that appear wildly different in external form may rely on identical mechanisms of change. In the first two editions of this book, caught up in the positivistic zeitgeist surrounding the developing psychotherapies, I referred to thesemechanisms of change as “curative factors.” Educated and humbled by the passing years, I know now that the harvest of psychotherapy is not cure—surely, in our field,
  • 15. that is an illusion—but instead change or growth. Hence, yielding to the dictates of reality, I now refer to the mechanisms of change as “therapeutic factors” rather than “curative factors.” The therapeutic factors constitute the central organizing principle of this book. I begin with a detailed discussion of eleven therapeutic factors and then describe a psychotherapeutic approach that is based on them. But which types of groups to discuss? The arrayof group therapies is now so vast that it is impossible for a text to address each type of group separately. How then to proceed? I have chosen in this book to center my discussion around a prototypic type of group therapy and then to offer a set of principles that will enable the therapist to modify this fundamental group model to fit any specialized clinical situation. The prototypical model is the intensive, heterogeneously composed outpatient psychotherapy group, meeting for at least several months, with the ambitious goals of both symptomatic relief and personality change. Why focus on this particular form of group therapy when the contemporary therapy scene, driven by economic factors, is dominated by another type of group—a homogeneous, symptom- oriented group that meets for briefer
  • 16. periods and has more limited goals? The answer is that long-term group therapy has been around for many decades and has accumulated a vast body of knowledge from both empirical research and thoughtful clinical observation. Earlier I alluded to contemporary therapists not often having the clinical opportunities to do their best work; I believe that the prototypical group we describe in this book is the setting in which therapists can offer maximum benefit to their clients. It is an intensive, ambitious form of therapy that demands much from both client and therapist. The therapeutic strategies and techniques required to lead such a group are sophisticated and complex. However, once students master them and understand how to modify them to fit specialized therapy situations, they will be in a position to fashion a group therapy that will be effective for any clinical population in any setting. Trainees should aspire to be creative and compassionate therapists with conceptual depth, not laborers with little vision and less morale. Managed care emphatically views group therapy as the treatment modality of the future. Group therapists must be as prepared as possible for this opportunity. Because most readers of this book are clinicians, the text is intended to have immediate clinical relevance.I also believe, however, that it is imperative for clinicians to remain conversant with the world of research. Even if therapists do not personally engage in
  • 17. research, they must know how to evaluate the research of others. Accordingly, the text relies heavily on relevant clinical, social, and psychological research. While searching through library stacks during the writing of earlyeditions of this book, I often found myself browsing in antiquated psychiatric texts. How unsettling it is to realize that the devotees of such therapy endeavors as hydrotherapy, rest cures, lobotomy, and insulin coma were obviously clinicians of high intelligence, dedication, and integrity. The same may be said of earlier generations of therapists who advocated venesection, starvation, purgation,and trephination. Their texts are as well written, their optimism as unbridled,and their reported results as impressive as those of contemporary practitioners. Question: why have otherhealth-care fields left treatment of psychological disturbance so far behind? Answer: because they have applied the principles of the scientific method. Without a rigorous research base,the psychotherapists of today who are enthusiastic about current treatments are tragically similar to the hydrotherapists and lobotomists of yesteryear. As long as we do not test basic principles and treatment outcomes with scientific rigor, our field remains at the mercy of passing fads and fashions. Therefore, whenever possible, the approach presented in this text is based on rigorous, relevant research, and attention is called to areas in
  • 18. which further research seems especially necessary and feasible. Some areas(for example, preparation for group therapy and the reasons for group dropouts) have been widely and competently studied, while otherareas (for example, “working through” or countertransference) have only recently been touched by research. Naturally, this distribution of research emphasis is reflected in the text: some chapters may appear, to clinicians, to stress research too heavily, while otherchapters may appear, to research-minded colleagues, to lack rigor. Let us not expect more of psychotherapy research than it can deliver. Will the findings of psychotherapy research affect a rapidmajor change in therapy practice? Probably not. Why? “Resistance” is one reason. Complex systems of therapy with adherents who have spent many years in training and apprenticeship and cling stubbornly to tradition will change slowly and only in the face of very substantial evidence. Furthermore, front-line therapists faced with suffering clients obviously cannot wait for science. Also, keep in mind the economics of research. The marketplace controls the focus of research. When managed-care economics dictated a massive swing to brief, symptom-oriented therapy, reports from a multitude of well-funded research projects on brief therapy began to appear
  • 19. in the literature. At the same time,the bottom dropped out of funding sources for research on longer-term therapy, despite a strong clinical consensus about the importance of such research. In time we expect that this trendwill be reversed and that more investigation of the effectiveness of psychotherapy in the real world of practice will be undertaken to supplement the knowledge accruing from randomized controlled trialsof brief therapy. Another consideration is that, unlike in the physical sciences, many aspects of psychotherapy inherently defy quantification. Psychotherapy is both art and science; research findings may ultimately shape the broad contours of practice, but the human encounter at the center of therapy will always be a deeply subjective, nonquantifiable experience. One of the most important underlying assumptions in this text is that interpersonal interaction within the here-and-now is crucial to effective group therapy. The truly potent therapy group first provides an arena in which clients can interact freely with others, then helps them identify and understand what goes wrong in their interactions, and ultimately enables them to change those maladaptive patterns. We believe that groups based solely on otherassumptions, such as psychoeducational or cognitive-behavioral principles, fail to reap the full therapeutic harvest. Each of theseforms of group therapy can be made even more effective by incorporating an awareness of
  • 20. interpersonal process. This pointneeds emphasis: It has greatrelevance for the future of clinical practice. The advent of managed care will ultimately result in increased use of therapy groups. But, in their quest for efficiency, brevity, and accountability, managed-care decision makers may make the mistake of decreeing that somedistinct orientations (brief, cognitive-behavioral, symptom-focused) are more desirable because their approach encompasses a series of stepsconsistent with otherefficient medical approaches: the setting of explicit, limited goals; the measuringof goal attainment at regular, frequent intervals; a highly specific treatment plan;and a replicable, uniform, manual- driven, highly structured therapy with a precise protocol for each session. But do not mistake the appearance of efficiency for true effectiveness. In this text we discuss, in depth, the extent and nature of the interactional focus and its potency in bringing about significant character and interpersonal change. The interactional focus is the engine of group therapy, and therapists who are able to harness it are much better equipped to do all forms of group therapy, even if the group model does not emphasize or acknowledge the centrality of interaction.
  • 21. Initially I was not eager to undertake the considerable task of revising this text. The theoretical foundations and technical approach to group therapy described in the fourth edition remain sound and useful. But a book in an evolving field is bound to age sooner than later, and the last edition was losing someof its currency. Not only did it contain dated or anachronistic allusions, but also the field has changed. Managed care has settled in by now, DSM-IV has undergone a text revision (DSM-IV-TR), and a decade of clinical and research literature needed to be reviewed and assimilated into the text. Furthermore, new types of groups have sprung up and others have faded away. Cognitive-behavioral, psychoeducational, and problem-specific brief therapy groups are becoming more common, so in this revision we have made a special effort throughout to address the particular issues germane to thesegroups. The first four chapters of this text discuss eleven therapeutic factors. Chapter 1 covers instillation of hope, universality, imparting information, altruism, the corrective recapitulation of the primary family group, the development of socializing techniques, and imitative behavior. Chapters 2 and 3 present the more complex and powerful factors of interpersonal learning and cohesiveness. Recent advances in our understanding of interpersonal theory and the therapeutic alliance that can strengthen therapist effectiveness have influenced our approach to thesetwo chapters.
  • 22. Chapter 4 discusses catharsis and existential factors and then attempts a synthesis by addressing the comparative importance and the interdependence of all eleven therapeutic factors. The next two chapters address the work of the therapist. Chapter 5 discusses the tasksof the group therapist—especially those germane to shaping a therapeutic group culture and harnessing the group interaction for therapeutic benefit. Chapter 6 describes how the therapist must first activate the here-and-now (that is, plunge the group into its own experience) and then illuminate the meaning of the here-and-now experience. In this edition we deemphasize certain models that rely on the elucidation of group-as-a-whole dynamics (for example, the Tavistock approach)— models that have since proven ineffective in the therapy process. (Some omitted material that may still interest some readers will remain available at www.yalom.com.) While chapters 5 and 6 address what the therapist must do, chapter 7 addresses how the therapist must be. It explicates the therapist’s role and the therapist’s use of self by focusing on two fundamental issues: transference and transparency. In previous editions, I felt compelledto encourage therapist restraint: Many therapists were still so influenced by the encounter group movement that they, too frequentlyand too extensively, “let it all hang out.” Times have changed; more conservative forces have taken hold,and now we
  • 23. feel compelled to discourage therapists from practicing too defensively. Many http://www.yalom.com contemporary therapists, threatened by the encroachment of the legal profession into the field (a result of the irresponsibility and misconduct of sometherapists, coupled with a reckless and greedy malpractice industry), have grown too cautious and impersonal. Hence we give much attention to the use of the therapist’s self in psychotherapy. Chapters 8 through 14 present a chronological view of the therapy group and emphasize group phenomena and techniques that are relevant to each stage. Chapters 8 and 9, on client selection and group composition, include new research data on group therapy attendance, dropouts, and outcomes. Chapter 10, which describes the practical realities of beginning a group, includes a lengthy new section on brief group therapy, presents much new research on the preparation of the client for group therapy. The appendix contains a document to distribute to new members to help prepare them for their work in the therapy group. Chapter 11 addresses the earlystages of the therapy group and includes new material on dealing with the therapy dropout. Chapter 12 deals with phenomena encountered in the mature phase of the group therapy work:
  • 24. subgrouping, conflict, self-disclosure, and termination. Chapter 13, on problem members in group therapy, adds new material to reflect advances in interpersonal theory. It discusses the contributions of intersubjectivity, attachment theory, and self psychology. Chapter 14 discusses specialized techniques of the therapist, including concurrent individual and group therapy (both combined and conjoint), co-therapy, leaderless meetings, dreams, videotaping, and structured exercises, the use of the written summary in group therapy, and the integration of group therapy and twelve-step programs. Chapter 15, on specialized therapy groups, addresses the many new groups that have emerged to deal with specific clinical syndromes or clinical situations. It presents the critically important principles used to modify traditional group therapy technique in order to design a group to meet the needs of otherspecialized clinical situations and populations, and describes the adaptation of cognitive-behavioral and interpersonal therapy to groups. These principles are illustrated by in-depth discussions of various groups, such as the acute psychiatric inpatient group and groups for the medically ill (with a detailed illustration of a group for patients with cancer). Chapter 15 also discusses self-help groups and the youngest member of the group therapy family—the Internet support group.
  • 25. Chapter 16, on the encounter group, presented the single greatest challenge for this revision. Because the encounter group qua encounter group has faded from contemporary culture, we considered omitting the chapter entirely. However, several factors argue against an earlyburial: the important role played by the encounter movementgroups in developing research technology and the use of encounter groups (also known as process groups, T-groups (for “training”), or experiential training groups) in group psychotherapy education. Our compromise was to shorten the chapter considerably and to make the entire fourth edition chapter available at www.yalom.com for readers who are interested in the history and evolution of the encounter movement. Chapter 17, on the training of group therapists, includes new approaches to the http://www.yalom.com supervision process and on the use of process groups in the educational curriculum. During the four years of preparing this revision I was also engaged in writing a novel, The Schopenhauer Cure, which may serve as a companion volume to this text: It is set in a therapy group and illustrates many of the principles of group process and therapist technique offered in this text. Hence, at several
  • 26. points in this fifth edition, I refer the reader to particular pages in The Schopenhauer Cure that offer fictionalized portrayals of therapist techniques. Excessively overweight volumes tend to gravitate to the “reference book” shelves. To avoid that fate we have resisted lengthening this text. The addition of much new material has mandated the painful task of cutting older sections and citations. (I left my writing desk dailywith fingers stained by the blood of many condemned passages.)To increase readability, we consigned almost all details and critiques of research method to footnotes or to notes at the end of the book. The review of the last ten years of group therapy literature has been exhaustive. Mostchapters contain 50–100 new references. In several locations throughout the book, we have placed a dagger (†) to indicate that corroborative observations or data exist for suggested current readings for students interested in that particular area. This list of referencesand suggested readings has been placed on my website, www.yalom.com. http://www.yalom.com Acknowledgments (Irvin Yalom)
  • 27. I am grateful to Stanford University for providing the academic freedom, library facilities, and administrative staff necessary to accomplish this work. To a masterful mentor, Jerome Frank (who died just before the publication of this edition), my thanks for having introduced me to group therapy and for having offered a model of integrity, curiosity, and dedication. Several have assisted in this revision: Stephanie Brown, Ph.D. (on twelve-step groups), Morton Lieberman, Ph.D. (on Internet groups), Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D. (on group-as-a-whole interventions), David Spiegel (on medical groups), and my son Ben Yalom, who edited several chapters. (Molyn Leszcz) I am grateful to the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry for its support in this project. Toronto colleagues who have made comments on drafts of this edition and facilitated its completion include Joel Sadavoy, M.D., Don Wasylenki, M.D., Danny Silver, M.D., Paula Ravitz, M.D., Zindel Segal, Ph.D., Paul Westlind, M.D., Ellen Margolese, M.D., Jan Malat, M.D., and Jon Hunter, M.D.Liz Konigshaus handled the painstaking task of word-processing, with enormous efficiency and unyielding good nature. Benjamin, Talia, and Noah Leszcz, my children, and Bonny Leszcz, my wife, contributed insight and encouragement throughout.
  • 28. Chapter 1 THE THERAPEUTIC FACTORS Does group therapy help clients? Indeed it does. A persuasive body of outcome research has demonstrated unequivocally that group therapy is a highly effective form of psychotherapy and that it is at least equal to individual psychotherapy in its power to provide meaningful benefit.1 …