Therapeutic Communities, Old and New

Abstract

The author attempts to clarify two largely different uses of the term, Therapeutic Community (TC). By “old” TC he describes a movement which originated in psychiatry in the United Kingdom at the end of World War II. This was an attempt to establish a democratic system in hospitals where the domination of the doctors was replaced by open communication of content and feeling, information sharing, shared decision making, and problem solving shared as far as possible with all patients and staff. Daily meetings of all patients and staff formed the nucleus of this process. In recent years developments in the areas of systems theory, learning theory, and organization development have contributed to a better understanding of social organization and change. The “new” TCs derive from the more recent developments in the treatment of substance abuse. Central to this movement is Synanon and its many modifications which use the clients' peer group to solve their own problems, largely eliminating mental health professionals. Linked with these “new” TCs is the development of Asklepieion units in prisons, which use Synanon “games” along with transactional analysis. An attempt is made to distinguish the methodologies used in TCs, “bid” and “new.”