Abstract
M.A. (Psychology)
This study set out to try and find some answers to questions pertaining to
psychotherapy groups in the admissions ward of a psychiatric hospital.
The questions were about the effect of group therapy on:
* the system of the psychiatric hospital;
* the therapists within the system of the psychiatric hospital;
* the members of the groups (the patients).
* which prosesses took place within the group therapy that can be
regarded as therapeutic, and
* which prosesses can be described as anti-therapeutic and destructive?
The study is descriptive in nature and looks in turn to group therapy in the
context of the psychiatric hospital and the efforts of two clinical psychology
interns to run therapy groups in the admissions ward of a psychiatric hospital.
The conclusion is made that the effectiveness of group therapy in a psychiatric
hospital is limited as long as the epistemological differences between
psychiatry and psychology are not attended to and as long as the status of
psychologists in general, and interns in particular, stays as it is at present.
With this in mind, recommendations are made regarding the context,
organisation, goals and structure of group therapy as well as the role of the
therapist, training of interns in group therapy and further research.