Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

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Summary: Entire Premise Skewed Toward Extroversion
Review: As a former hospital chaplain, mental health therapist, and one-time patient, I am greatly put off by the author's assumptions and arrogance concerning group therapy. His attempts to "bring out" and "socialize" Highly Sensitive Personalities, Introverts and those with Schizo-social disorders borders on criminal. Starting with p.231, the author spins a rather slanted bias in favor of extroversion, brashly assuming that introverted patients need "fixed" if they are to be productive and happy in a group therapy environment. Such gross insensitivity and ignorance is unfortunate, misleading, and inexcusable in a scholarly text such as this.

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Summary: The Theory And Practice Of Group Psychotherapy
Review: Dear Dr. Yalom,Although you are a psychiatrist, you may equally be considered a psychologist, sociologist, philosopher and researcher. No wonder your book is in its fourth edition, been translated into twelve languages, and sold 700,000 copies. I had been doing group psychotherapy for several decades before being introduced to your text. You express many things I had considered but never refined. I sensed that therapy groups were cultures and had norms. I knew that people begin to display their "problems" in the group with more blatant problems appearing first. I knew empathetic understanding was curative. I knew these things but you add depth, research, connection to the behavioral sciences and literature, and your own creativity.Early in life you developed a notion that "writing a novel is the very finest thing a person can do." The novel and psychotherapy share the experience of human drama, from folly to inspiration. You see the psychotherapeutic novel unfolding before you. You demonstrate that therapeutic things occur in an atmosphere of safety and honest, self-disclosing communication. You examine group dynamics in theoretical, empirical and practical ways that go beyond a novel.In expressing the theoretical sections of the text, you sound more like a sociologist than a psychiatrist. You use the words norms, social microcosm, primary family, interpersonal learning, group cohesiveness, and altruism. Your knockout punch was the idea of a therapy group being a sociological entity known as a "social microcosm" and that the therapist's job is to create a therapeutic culture. Social microcosm refers to the idea that in a "freely interactive group" that meets for sixteen months or more, people will become who they are in the larger world and the individual's pathology will be played out before you on the group stage. Your philosophic leanings toward existentialism can be seen in your emphasis on concepts such as the "here and now," and the individual's acceptance of personal responsibility for change. "Here and now" focuses on an awareness of the intra-group relationships. The basic existential question you ask of clients is, "Are you happy with the social reality that you have created?" If not, the individual is asked to accept responsibility for changing it. Groups have PowerYou believe that group approaches must be evaluated by outcome research. Compelling evidence is presented in your text that groups are effective and not simply a low cost model of individual psychotherapy. Evidence suggests, "...that the outcome of group psychotherapy is virtually identical." You state that research finds that successful therapy, whether individual or group, is characterized by a therapist/ patient relationship of "trust, warmth, empathetic understanding and acceptance."The Power Elements of the GroupYou assert that there is something special about a group. You specify the factors that fuel the power of the group. Based on research of "most successful patients," you posit twelve variables, ranging from Altruism to Universality, that are the power elements enabling therapy groups to bring about corrections of personality distortions. You offer these as the therapeutic skeleton of any therapeutic group.Don Quixote Yalom Fights the WindmillI also appreciate your willingness to take on the giants, though there is not much chance of winning. You take on managed care, DSM-IV and labeling, and problem specific group therapy. Your quote below is one that most therapists can identify with."I've always agreed with Jung that a different therapy must be constructed for each patient ... As the years pass, this attitude moves me further and further away from the center of professional psychiatry, which is being fiercely driven by economic forces in precisely opposite directions- namely accurate de-individualizing (symptom based) diagnosis and uniform, protocol-driven, brief therapy for all."ConsiderationsThe weaknesses of your approach are similar to those of traditional verbal psychotherapy. Your subjects appear to be fairly highly functioning upper middle class adults with jobs and relationships. They seem to be individuals who have had experiences with individual therapy, read the latest self-help books, and are prone to self-analysis. You never approach the ideas of ethnic or cultural diversity and how this affects group dynamics. Would individuals of Asian, African-American or Arabic background find your approach to group beneficial? Are there special problems presented by children? Is this type of therapy equally effective for poor people? As a therapist I ask, "How often is a therapist able to convene the same group of five to ten people for eighteen months to two years?" This time period is not generally feasible as managed health would certainly have no part of it, private funding would be a burden for many, and insurance will no longer cover it. At the individual level, it is difficult to ask someone to commit for two-years. I'm not sure that I'd want to commit to a group for that period of time. Summary: You give us the concept of social microcosm, then you mix in norms such as honesty and self-disclosure, add a couple of jiggers of "here and now" and you have a therapeutic cocktail that addresses long term personality problems. You have probably done more research on group therapy than any other human animal in history. Your text combines the best available empirical evidence with touching vignettes and is accurately described as reading like a novel. Thank you for taking the slight of hand magic out of the group process and replacing it with substance. We have gained light and insight since the dark ages of group psychotherapy and your contribution has been a major part of that. My training in group psychotherapy consisted of being thrown into a group with a tape recorder and told to do group therapy, and that we would talk about it later in supervision. Thank God for progress and the accumulation of knowledge and research. You have taught us to be aware and sometimes share the unspoken parts of interactive experiences. Thank you.

Love, Peace, and Group Psychotherapy, Bill Lombardo, Ph.D.

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Summary: A Veritable Masterpiece!
Review: Dr. Yalom's book is not only a veritable masterpiece, but a tour de force that deals with everything you ever wanted to know about group psychotherapy.

Comprehensive without being pedantic, thorough without being dense, Dr. Yalom puts the group process under a magnifying glass and, in straightforward easy-to-understand language and conceptualization, gently guides the student through all of the subtlties and nuances of group work.

I had to purchase this book for use as the main text in a group process course, but this book will remain on my shelf long after I have taken the course. Dr. Yalom's keen insight into not just how/why groups behave and function the way they do, but also his insight into basic human nature, has made this book very enjoyable as well as educational.

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Summary: A very informative book
Review: I am currently using this for class and it is a very good book. Yalom, explains the process of group work and what aspect of the process works and what doesn't. You will be able to use what you read in this book with your own groups. Expects some laughs because there's a lot of humor also. You won't be bored.

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Summary: A valuable resource
Review: I have used Irvin Yalom's text for three years as a companion to a process-oriented ten week group experience for undergraduate psychology students. The students have complained of Yalom's exceptional vocabulary and historical and literary allusions, but some have apparently managed to read the parcels I've assigned and have reported appreciating the wonderful vision and breadth of Yalom's novel-like presentation.
I enjoyed this book immensely as a graduate student of counseling and have found it to be a wonderful resource. It has been very enjoyable to watch my students see Yalom's principles get played out in our demonstration group and it has been gratifying to see these forces affect my clients therapeutically even with the limitations of managed care. In fact, I would say that Yalom's existential leanings are very consistent with strength-based, solution-focused psychotherapy.

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Summary: The 'bible' of group therapy
Review: I read this book for one of my college courses (group therapy) and cannot express my gratitude for having come across this book. Mr. Yalom dissects and explains nearly all imaginable aspects of group process, from before the first meeting to well after termination. Beyond that, he provides wonderful insight into human behavior. This information is invaluable to me. I agree that it should be required reading for anyone seeking a profession in human services. Yalom is the man!!

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Summary: Yalom & Group Therapy
Review: Irvin D. Yalom writes a magnificent book in The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy. This well written and thoughtful book covers many pertinent and related issues to the topic of group psychotherapy. Yalom incorporates experience and theory in order to display to the reader, a well formatted thesis containing valuable techniques which are directed not only to the novice therapist, but to the expert therapist as well. Some of the strong benefits of the book include: First and foremost, a dynamic and extremely gifted author in Irvin Yalom whose experience in the field is matched by few others, and whose writing throughout the book has an easy flow of readability which many other authors unfortunately lack. Yalom uses vignettes of previous experiences by both himself and other therapists throughout the entire book in order to give the reader a concrete and interesting example of how his theories are put into practice. This also gives the reader a rare look into many different types of groups and experiences which help the reader identify and get a clear picture of what a group therapy meeting looks and feels like. As Yalom writes, he has consideration for different viewpoints of other authors and theorists. He notes these differences and gives the reader reasons why he believes his techniques to be more effective and facilitating to the group process. He notes and discusses research in a palatable manner not loosing sight of the fact that his book is directed toward current and future therapists using practical techniques to help members of a psychotherapy group. A constant theme throughout the book is the concept of the "here and now" which Yalom uses to stress that the group should maintain focus on those things which are relevant to the current circumstances. This means that any topic or subject may be brought up in the group yet it is the therapist's and members of the group's duty to relate the experience to the "here and now" and how it relates to a person's or group's life today. Yalom also stresses that the group is like a microcosm of society and shows how many of the attitudes and types of individuals which are found in society at large can also be pronounced in a small group. He gives novice therapists guidelines and techniques on how to handle an array of circumstances in very positive and therapeutic manner. He also gives veteran therapists techniques on how to finely tune their approach in therapy, and possible solutions in solving problems which have likely alluded them in the past. A major quality about which impressed about the book was Yalom's periodic reminder of humility. Unlike many other professionals in the field who constantly remind us of how genius they are, and who write more to impress their colleagues than they do to reach individuals who might actually benefit from their work, Yalom lets the reader know one fact; that he is only human. Yalom gives examples in the book of mistakes he has made in the past while conducting groups, and he uses these experiences to teach the reader that mistakes are not only possibly to occur, they are likely to occur, and that often times a therapists can use the circumstances to make a more rich experience for members of a group. He encourages many types of human interaction in the group stressing that members stay in the "here and now" and that the therapist take on a role more like that of a member than a leader. Yalom even shows the reader how to create a group and how to handle certain types of clients an behaviors which can paralyze the group process. A shortcoming of the book is that it pays little if any attention to cultural factors. It also does not adequately cover the topic of brief therapy, which is becoming more popular and practical in modern times. Also, Yalom did not address how a therapist might strategically conduct group therapy while working with different means of payment which are common today. Despite these shortcomings, Yalom's "Group Psychotherapy" is a phenomenal book which is a must read for anyone in the field, and a great starter book for anyone who is interested in the topic.

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Summary: BORED TO TEARS
Review: It is about time Yalom stopped expending his already out of touch books on group therapy. His first edition was an asset in the beginning development of group therapy but his many editions are just another way of selling books. In many cases his more recent editions give graduate students an unrealistic and often out of touch perspective on group psychotherapy. One only has to watch one of Yalom's group therapy videos to really see the detachment and lack of feeling this man produces in his work. The book was a bore but there will always be those groupies through cognitive disonance who will aplaud its great contribution. I feel sorry for the clients who come to their groups if they model themselves after Yalom. Sort of similar to all those Benjamin Spock babies running around after their mothers raised their kids by his book and are now completely neurotic.

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Summary: I enjoy to read this book, for many reasons.
Review: It's really wonderfull to find out that somebody have done this work to put in words all these groupphenomenons. And its easy to learn to see what is happening in groups, when you have readen this book.

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Summary: The Group Therapy "Bible"
Review: No lengthy explanation needed here. I am a graduate counseling psychology student with a particular interest and experience in groups. We refer to this particular Yalom book as the group therapy "bible," since it pretty much contains everything you could ever need to know about the basics of running therapy (and even support) groups. This is one of very few books I've had to read for school that I actually couldn't STOP reading--it's that good. My professor for this course has been doing groups for over 20 years and says she still refers back to this book for insight when leading her groups. Also check out Yalom's book on existential therapy! There is some case study overlap with the group book, but it's another favorite. And don't let the size of this book intimidate you. You won't be able to put it down! Yalom is the man . . . Happy reading!