Progress in group psychotherapy; a summary of the literature.
GROUP psychotherapy has aroused much interest in psychiatric and general medical circles. The literature is voluminous and varied, indicating many approaches and as many purposes, with coincident confusion. This report summarizes the recent literature. Medical group psychotherapy was initiated in Boston in 1905 by Dr. Joseph H. Pratt. Psychiatric group therapy has been practiced in the Boston Dispensary since 1930. Military necessity and a shortage of psychiatric personnel resulted in the employment of this form of treatment by the armed forces in World War II. At the same time its use became expedient in civilian mental hospitals. Results indicate the . . .