ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the psychodynamic approach to groups. The widespread use of therapeutic groups emerged during the Second World War as a practical response to the needs of soldiers with psychiatric conditions. The Northfield experiments in the 1940s were led by senior medical officers who were to become key figures in psychoanalysis, group analysis and the development of therapeutic communities in the United Kingdom. Practitioners have taken a psychodynamic approach to groups and applied it to a wide range of patients – such as people with eating disorders, people who self-harm, people with depression, and people with a diagnosis of a personality disorder. Groups are appealing to mental health practitioners because they offer the possibility of being able to treat a larger number of people than with one-to-one therapies. Groups are also able to help patients who are difficult to engage in individual therapies, such as those with addictions or those in forensic settings.
