ARTICLE
Can psychotherapy change society? Reflections from many years of group work on the possibility of dialogue
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Klinika Psychiatrii Dzieci i Młodzieży Katedry Psychiatrii UJCM
Submission date: 2018-05-07
Final revision date: 2018-06-19
Acceptance date: 2018-06-20
Publication date: 2018-08-29
Corresponding author
Jacek Bomba
Katedra Psychiatrii UJCM, Kopernika 21 A, 31 501 Kraków, Polska
Psychoter 2018;185(2):79-88
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ABSTRACT
Beginning with Erich Fromm, psychotherapists have employed theories of psychotherapy in understanding unaccepted courses of social events. Psychotherapy theories are also used for the interpretation of history. The language and methods developed in psychotherapy have dominated many dimensions of social life: social work, education, advertisement, and public relations. Psychotherapy, especially group psychotherapy, has been employed also in solving social and political conflicts. Annual seminars of The Israeli-Polish Mental Health Association included small group meetings of Israeli, Polish, and German mental health professionals. Using theory and methods of psychodynamic psychotherapy, the Association took on the task of working through the burden of the tragedy of Holocaust consequences, which is a goal declared in its statutes. Referring to our own experience in the statutory work of The Israeli-Polish Mental Health Association, we conclude that in spite of a significant impact on the interpersonal level, a change on the social level is invisible.