[Social therapy with psychiatrically disordered dyssocial adolescents]

This paper presents different aspects of social therapy with dissocial adolescents on a specialized inpatient psychiatric unit. Social therapy works through individual therapy but even more through the therapeutic milieu on the ward. The therapy process is divided in the resistance, the working through and the resolution phase. Social therapy aims on the one side at the compensation of deficits in everyday life. Interchange with staff promotes on the other side corrective social experiences, that finally function as a model for all human relationships of the adolescent. When social therapy succeeds, the adolescent doesn't need his acting-out behavior any longer and may concentrate on his age-specific problems.