The captive group: guidelines for group therapists in the inpatient setting

Group therapists working with psychiatric inpatients must deal with problems unique to that setting. First, group members are usually in the hospital and the group involuntarily. They need to be recruited to attend the meetings. Second, inpatients tend to use the group as a private forum for communication with the leader. They need to be inducted into the group-as-a-whole, going beyond an exclusive focus on the leader as a need-fulfilling object. Third, members have little idea of what they are supposed to do in the group, or may be too symptomatic to observe the social mores of the group. They need to be trained as group members. Techniques for turning a "captive group" into a therapy group are discussed.