Meeting maturational needs in the group setting

Many people who enter treatment with intrapsychic conflicts also bring with them developmental deficits. These deficits stem from early environmental failures: Parenting figures did not provide needed maturational input, creating a gap that leaves the child with developmental deficits in their personality. These, like intrapsychic conflicts, engender formidable resistances to progress in treatment. This article intends to show that group treatment is ideally suited to the task of filling in these emotional voids. To enable members to address the deficit of a co-member, the group leader systematically initiates and oversees five basic steps.