The evolution of the therapeutic community

The creation of Therapeutic Communities in the Military Hospitals of the UK for the treatment of psychological casualties of war during the Second World War is described. The personnel and the methods utilised are discussed and the lessons learned are summarised. It is argued that this was not an entirely new phenomenon. The author describes previous usage of similar methods in residential communities for disadvantaged or delinquent youth in the period between the two world wars and, prior to this, the eighteenth century "era of moral treatment" in mental hospitals in the UK and USA.