The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

Preface to the Fifth Edition For this fifth edition of The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy I have had the good fortune of having Molyn Leszcz as my collaborator. Dr. Leszcz, whom I first met in 1980 when he spent a yearlong fellowship in group therapy with me at Stanford University, has been a major con- tributor to research and clinical innovation in group therapy. For the past twelve years, he has directed one of the largest group therapy training programs in the world in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, where he is an associate professor. His broad knowledge of contemporary group practice and his exhaustive review of the research and clinical literature were invaluable to the preparation of this volume. We worked diligently, like co-therapists, to make this edition a seamless integration of new and old material. Although for stylistic integrity we opted to retain the first-person singular in this text, behind the “I” there is always a collaborative “we.” Our task in this new edition was to incorporate the many new changes in the field and to jettison outmoded ideas and methods. But we had a dilemma: What if some of the changes in the field do not represent ad- vances but, instead, retrogression? What if marketplace considerations demanding quicker, cheaper, more efficient methods act against the best interests of the client? And what if “efficiency” is but a euphemism for shedding clients from the fiscal rolls as quickly as possible? And what if these diverse market factors force therapists to offer less than they are ca- pable of offering their clients? If these suppositions are true, then the requirements of this revision be- come far more complex because we have a dual task: not only to present current methods and prepare student therapists for the contemporary workplace, but also to preserve the accumulated wisdom and techniques of our field even if some young therapists will not have immediate oppor- tunities to apply them.