ABSTRACT
Irvin Yalom has written two excellent texts on group psychotherapy. The first, initially published in 1970 (the second edition came out in 1975, the third edition in 1985, and the fourth in 1995), deals primarily with the application of outpatient group psychotherapy to a non-addicted population. The second text deals almost exclusively with the application of inpatient group psychotherapy with psychotic patients primarily in an acute hospital setting (1982). Since it is Yalom's first text that provides the theoretical underpinnings for his approach to group psychotherapy, this chapter will concentrate on his contribution to group psychotherapy as it is outlined for an outpatient setting in his 1970 text. However, even this text devotes relatively little space and time to Yalom's theoretical rationale for conducting a group in his prescribed manner. Many group psychotherapists, while acknowledging that Yalom's 1975 text provides the reader with the best practical "nuts and bolts"'directions available for conducting an interactional group, criticize him at the same time for being atheoretical and ignoring the philosophical foundations for his approach to group psychotherapy.
