Group Psychotherapy with Alcoholics. Preliminary Report

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Abstract
A year''s experience in group psychotherapy of alcoholics at Bellevue Hosp. is reported. The group consisted of 6 neurotic alcoholics who had had severe drinking problems for 3 to 15 yrs. All had previously experienced failure in other forms of treatment. Patients were selected so as to achieve within the group a large degree of homogeneity in economic, cultural and social backgrounds as well as in emotional problems. The optimal number of patients for a group appears to be 5 or 6. Treatment is given twice weekly in sessions lasting 1 to 1.5 hrs. It appears to be advisable to have separate groups by sex. Sessions are recorded electronically. Of the 6 neurotic alcoholics, 4 showed marked improvement in terms of drinking, adaptations to work, interpersonal relations and sex. This method of treatment appears to offer advantages particularly for alcoholic patients. In individual therapy the alcoholic is unable to tolerate the intense transference feelings and stops treatment, goes on a spree, or both. In the group psychotherapeutic approach,a level of transference is achieved which is therapeuti-cally useful yet is within the encompassment of the alcoholic''s low anxiety tolerance. This lessening in degree of transference is achieved by patients through identification. The patients also support each other against the therapist and can divert some feelings away from the therapist and toward each other. Extracts from a recorded session are presented to illustrate these processes.

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