Therapeutic communities provide, in addition to safe accommodation and twenty-four hour care, a highly structured environment with set rules and timetables. Within this environment they establish a set of relationships and meetings that provides a safe emotional container for distress. Members play an active role in all decisions affecting them, which can include voting on the admission and discharge of other residents, allocating daily domestic tasks to all members of the community, and holding members accountable for the breaking of rules. The range of institutions included in the term...

Concept-based therapeutic communities emerged out of the informal group meetings of Charles Dederich and a number of former Alcoholics Anonymous members in California in the late 1950s. The model was exported worldwide and has not only become the most widely used approach to residential treatment but has proved enormously influential in the development of many other treatment approaches; both residential and ambulatory. Concept-based therapeutic communities are hierarchical, and the staff and residents form a chain of command. Staff are often qualified for their work by virtue of having been...

'Northfield was referred to in tones of awe when one joined Group Relations work of the Tavistock Institute in the mid sixties, but there was never any detailed discussion, no flesh to the bones of the story. It was a mystery. Now, Tom Harrison has written of the myth and given it a substance that makes it more exciting than the myth itself... Harrison offers in his exposition of the myth a well documented, seduously researchedm gripping tale. Using his knowledge of groups, contemporary documents and personal interviews, he seamlessly unfolds the history... Harrison reaffirms in his book the...

'This is the seventh volume in the therapeutic communities series and a highly informative and reassuring read for anyone interested in psychodynamic applications, or working with individuals with a mental illness.' - Therapeutic Communities Journal 'Having no first hand experience of working with mental illness from a psychodynamic perspective, I hoped that this book would provide me with an insight in to the therapeutics of mental illness within a community. The book certainly accomplished this and more. In keeping with the "community spirit" I also feel this book would be of interest to...

'This book not only documents how a therapeutic community functions, it also contributes to understanding how people can be influenced by their social setting and how individuals can form coherent social organizations together.' - Administration & Policy in Mental Health 'Hinshelwood is a leading figure in the pro-therapeutic communities camp. This book is a collection of many of his papers and presentations on the subject. We enjoy a rich journey through philosophical thought of the last 200 years with Marx, Foucault and Wittgenstein, among others, making an appearance. The book is strongest...