GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY IN ASSOCIATION WITH ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

29 The limitations of medicine have possibly never been so easily recognized as in the treatment of the alcoholic patient. This paper is a description of a therapeutic regime that has been set up in a Veterans Administration Hospital that incorporates a recognized group of The Alcoholics Anonymous Foundation. This particular treatment program is carried out on the acute-intensive treatment psychiatric service, and is under the over-all supervision of the chief of that service. The importance of the emotional etiology that is presented symptomatically as alcoholism has not been so fully accepted as have other symptoms of emotional instability. Time as a factor in treating any patient with an emotional disorder is often forcibly abbreviated by both the therapeutic team cognizant of the limitations of bed space and by the patient who usually prefers treatment of his physical disability to therapy for his emotional disturbance. In reviewing the literature we note that many types of programs(I-3, 5-7, 10, 12, 15, 19-21) have been suggested for the treatment of the alcoholic. Psychotherapy for the individual has as many devotees(8, i6-i8) as has the group technique ( ., 9, 13, 14). Meyer (II) states: “Much of this work of adjustment is carried on upon a strongly individualizing basis; even then, in the end, there will always be persons who do best when treated in groups, with the help of a sense of belonging and being accepted.” “Group interaction,” Mueller writes(13), “is the basic medium for the release of emotional difficulties.” Alcoholics Anonymous satisfies the re-