Problems of therapeutic community practice in two halfway houses for disturbed adolescents: a comparative...

Materials gathered from a participant observation study of two therapeutic communities for disturbed adolescents were used to highlight the respective problems of two contrasting approaches to therapy. Whereas one community pursued the principles of programming and instrumental intervention, the other community's approach centred on minimal supervision and reality confrontation; the two communities mirrored, at a micro-level, wider divisions of practice within the therapeutic communities movement.