[Group psychotherapy in psychiatry].

Psychiatry has learned to regard the human being not only as an individual but as a social being. Accordingly, group psychotherapy has come increasingly to the fore in recent years and decades. In general the term "group psychotherapy" means simultaneous psychotherapy of a number of patients by one or two therapists. Sociological-interactional-horizontal and deep psychological-motivational-vertical components combine in the therapeutic group to produce a resultant. Insight into unconscious motivations and social learning are stimulated in the therapeutic group. Through group psychotherapy, which can be administered as a treatment method alone or in combination with other therapies, inpatients and outpatients experience a framework which activates former experiences of collective life situations, e.g. in the family, and social valencies. Irrespective of the method of group psychotherapy (activity group psychotherapy, directive-suggestive group psychotherapy, group analysis, psychodrame or one of the accelerating methods) the group should always be group- and not leader-centered. Hitherto published results of group psychotherapy show that the treatment depends much more on the therapeutic commitment of the therapist (moderator, facilitator) than on the psychotherapeutic school to which the belongs.