Psychotherapeutic Change through the Group Process discusses the relation between the properties of groups and therapeutic change. The purpose is to develop a view of groups that accounts for the diversity, complexity, and fluidity of the group situation. The view examines the group in depth, attending not only to overt events, but also to covert aspects of specific situations. The work addresses manifest behaviors, underlying motivations; and the cognitive, rational aspects of the group. It explores the intense affect which may be generated under conditions of group interaction; not merely to the group or individual, but to the individual in the group and to the group as the context for personal experience and change. The research presented here was initially explored in small group studies. Separate investigations considered the ways in which patients and therapists view group events, the nature of deviation, and the development of group standards. They consider factors associated with therapeutic improvement and therapeutic failure; and characteristic concerns of early sessions. These, plus several discussions of theory and methodology have been published separately. The authors' working procedure has been to study intensively a relatively small number of groups, relying upon careful observation of natural groups rather than upon laboratory experimentation. The overall effort has been to understand the processes of therapy groups in all their clinical richness and intricacy and yet to impose a scientific discipline and control on our analyses. This has meant a continuing attempt to develop appropriate analytic procedures so that clinical analyses can be as firmly rooted as possible in concrete data and reproducible methods. This book is a unique effort at the scientific grounding of social work practice.

Written by a scholar who is a therapist and a psychodiagnostician, this book documents the direct relationship between patient response patterns to a battery of psychological tests, and their subsequent behavior in psychotherapy. Unlike other books in the field, which concentrate on psychodiagnostics or psychological report writing, Blank takes the reader, session-by-session, through the therapeutic notes of ten patients who were in therapy. At each step of the way, patient behavior in therapy is shown alongside test response patterns. This book, first published in 1965, continues to provide a major contribution, both as a practical manual and as a reference book for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, trainees and students. Anyone who is interested in using psychological evaluations to better understand the intricacies of the therapeutic process will fi nd the book an invaluable aid. So also will those who want to sharpen their diagnostic skills as part of theory construction. The author also provides a description and rationale of commonly employed psycho-diagnostic techniques, diagnostic overviews for each of the ten patients emphasizing the dynamics of differing diagnostic patterns and their prognostic implications, complete test data and process therapy notes for each of the ten patients, and an analysis of the complex interplay of personality resources of the patient, the personality of the therapist and the fortuitous circumstances that enter into every therapeutic situation.

Written by a scholar who is a therapist and a psychodiagnostician, this book documents the direct relationship between patient response patterns to a battery of psychological tests, and their subsequent behavior in psychotherapy. Unlike other books in the field, which concentrate on psychodiagnostics or psychological report writing, Blank takes the reader, session-by-session, through the therapeutic notes of ten patients who were in therapy. At each step of the way, patient behavior in therapy is shown alongside test response patterns.

This book, first published in 1965, continues to provide a major contribution, both as a practical manual and as a reference book for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, trainees and students. Anyone who is interested in using psychological evaluations to better understand the intricacies of the therapeutic process will fi nd the book an invaluable aid. So also will those who want to sharpen their diagnostic skills as part of theory construction.

The author also provides a description and rationale of commonly employed psycho-diagnostic techniques, diagnostic overviews for each of the ten patients emphasizing the dynamics of differing diagnostic patterns and their prognostic implications, complete test data and process therapy notes for each of the ten patients, and an analysis of the complex interplay of personality resources of the patient, the personality of the therapist and the fortuitous circumstances that enter into every therapeutic situation.

"Psychotherapeutic Change through the Group Process" discusses the relation between the properties of groups and therapeutic change. The purpose is to develop a view of groups that accounts for the diversity, complexity, and fluidity of the group situation. The view examines the group in depth, attending not only to overt events, but also to covert aspects of specific situations. The work addresses manifest behaviors, underlying motivations; and the cognitive, rational aspects of the group. It explores the intense affect which may be generated under conditions of group interaction; not merely to the group or individual, but to the individual in the group and to the group as the context for personal experience and change.

The research presented here was initially explored in small group studies. Separate investigations considered the ways in which patients and therapists view group events, the nature of deviation, and the development of group standards. They consider factors associated with therapeutic improvement and therapeutic failure; and characteristic concerns of early sessions. These, plus several discussions of theory and methodology have been published separately.

The authors' working procedure has been to study intensively a relatively small number of groups, relying upon careful observation of natural groups rather than upon laboratory experimentation. The overall effort has been to understand the processes of therapy groups in all their clinical richness and intricacy and yet to impose a scientific discipline and control on our analyses. This has meant a continuing attempt to develop appropriate analytic procedures so that clinical analyses can be as firmly rooted as possible in concrete data and reproducible methods. This book is a unique effort at the scientific grounding of social work practice.

"Dorothy Stock Whitaker" is professor of social work at York University. She is author of "Emotional Dynamics and Group Culture: Experimental Studies of Individual and Group Behavior" and "Using Groups to Help People."

"Morton A. Lieberman" is professor of psychiatry and director of the Aging and Mental Health Program at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also director of the Alzheimer's Center at the university and is regarded as a leading expert in the fields of psychology of aging and group therapy.