The Emergence of Group and Community Therapies A Metabletic Enquiry

Abstract

The emergence of ‘collective therapies’ such as group therapy and therapeutic communities are explored. It is discovered that these therapies start emerging around the beginning of the twentieth century and gain widespread acceptance around the time of the Second World War. This development is understood using the phenomenological theory of historical psychology (metabletics) of JH van den Berg. These ‘collective therapies’ are recast in phenomenological terms where it is argued that these therapies ‘correct’ modern alienated existence and allow for a being-with- others that contemporary existence makes problematic. Finally it is argued that this form of therapy is healing to individuals and equally to ‘the world’.