Making society's groups more therapeutic

This paper represents the author's Presidential Address to the American Group Psychotherapy Association, delivered at the annual meeting on February 11, 1988, in New York. The author poses a challenge: What can we teach society about how to make our groups more healing and productive? He suggests certain guidelines relating to effective communication, empathic understanding, willingness to assume responsibility, and, most importantly, recognition that groups exist for the individuals who comprise them. For groups to function well, individuals must play their role and sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole; yet for groups to function well, the needs of the individual must never be lost.