Editing Group psychotherapy (section)

==History==
The founders of group psychotherapy in the United States were Joseph H. Pratt, [[Trigant Burrow]] and [[Paul Schilder]]. All three of them were active and working at the East Coast in the first half of the 20th century. In 1932 [[Jacob L. Moreno]] presented his work on group psychotherapy to the [[American Psychiatric Association]], and co-authored a monograph on the subject.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-qkaAAAAIAAJ|title=Group method and group psychotherapy|first1=Jacob Levy|last1=Moreno|first2=Helen Hall|last2=Jennings|first3=Ernest Stagg|last3=Whitin| author4 = National Committee on Prisons | name-list-style = vanc |date=9 April 2018|publisher=Beacon House|access-date=9 April 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> After [[World War II]], group psychotherapy was further developed by Moreno, [[Samuel Slavson]], [[Hyman Spotnitz]], [[Irvin Yalom]], and [[Louis Ormont|Lou Ormont]]. Yalom's approach to group therapy has been very influential not only in the USA but across the world.

An early development in group therapy was the [[T-group (social psychology)|T-group]] or training group (sometimes also referred to as [[Sensitivity training|sensitivity-training]] group, human relations training group or encounter group), a form of group psychotherapy where participants (typically, between eight and 15 people) learn about themselves (and about small group processes in general) through their interaction with each other. They use feedback, problem solving, and role play to gain insights into themselves, others, and groups. It was pioneered in the mid-1940s by [[Kurt Lewin]] and [[Carl Rogers]] and his colleagues as a method of learning about human behavior in what became the [[National Training Laboratories]] (also known as the [[NTL Institute]]) that was created by the [[Office of Naval Research]] and the [[National Education Association]] in Bethel, Maine, in 1947.

Moreno developed a specific and highly structured form of group therapy known as [[psychodrama]] (although the entry on psychodrama claims it is not a form of group therapy). Another recent development in the theory and method of group psychotherapy based on an integration of systems thinking is [[Yvonne Agazarian]]'s [[systems-centered therapy]] (SCT), which sees groups functioning within the principles of system dynamics. Her method of "functional subgrouping" introduces a method of organizing group communication so it is less likely to react counterproductively to differences. SCT also emphasizes the need to recognize the phases of group development and the defenses related to each phase in order to best make sense and influence group dynamics.

In the United Kingdom group psychotherapy initially developed independently, with pioneers [[S. H. Foulkes]] and [[Wilfred Bion]] using group therapy as an approach to treating combat fatigue in the Second World War. Foulkes and Bion were psychoanalysts and incorporated psychoanalysis into group therapy by recognising that [[transference]] can arise not only between group members and the therapist but also among group members. Furthermore, the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious was extended with a recognition of a group unconscious, in which the unconscious processes of group members could be acted out in the form of irrational processes in group sessions. Foulkes developed the model known as [[group analysis]] and the Institute of Group Analysis, while Bion was influential in the development of group therapy at the [[Tavistock Clinic]].

Bion's approach is comparable to [[social therapy]], first developed in the United States in the late 1970s by [[Lois Holzman]] and [[Fred Newman (philosopher)|Fred Newman]], which is a group therapy in which practitioners relate to the group, not its individuals, as the fundamental unit of development. The task of the group is to "build the group" rather than focus on problem solving or "fixing" individuals.

In Argentina an independent school of group analysis stemmed from the work and teachings of Swiss-born Argentine psychoanalyst [[Enrique Pichon-Rivière]]. This thinker conceived of a group-centered approach which, although not directly influenced by Foulkes' work, was fully compatible with it.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tubert-Oklander|first1=Juan|last2= de Tubert|first2=Reyna Hernández | name-list-style = vanc |title=Operative groups : the Latin-American approach to group analysis|date=2004|publisher=Jessica Kingsley Publishers|location=London|isbn=978-1-84310-094-2}}</ref>