Group Psychotherapy in Sweden

The paper presents an overview of the national developments of group psychotherapy (GPS) in Sweden during the period from World War II until the present time. Methods and concepts, imported primarily from England and the United States, inspired trainings and widespread psychodynamic and group analytic applications in schools, health treatment, and social care. Education in psychotherapy and GPS at universities opened new therapeutic and vocational areas during the period 1970-2005. Increasing criticism of psychodynamics, as in other Western societies, but more radical in Sweden, has in the last decades made group analytic GPS diminish in favor of cognitive behavioral therapy models. Prospects for GPS further development may presently look bleak but, in a longer perspective, are promising.