ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the dilemmas and ambiguities which may be involved in the development of self help organizations and the problems these present for analysts and evaluators of self help activity. For purposes of the authors' analysis, self help groups are defined as groups of people who feel they have a common problem (typically concerning a medical, social or behavioural condition) and have joined together to try to do something about it. Members of groups may, through accumulated experience or training, acquire a degree of expertise in handling situations involved in self help activity which is a resource for the group, and which the group may need for the realization of some, or all of its goals. But this development can present an immediate dilemma if only some of the group become expert in this way. The claims made for self help imply that it is a powerful force for progressive change.
