This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1988, Volume 5, Number 2, pages 211-227. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

Psychotherapy of a Casualty From a Mass Therapy Encounter Group: A Case Study

Anita O. Solomon, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.

Abstract

A clinical psychologist utilizing the case study approach describes her cognitive and analytic therapy with a patient, Ms. B, who had been in a mass therapy encounter group. Ms. B had become psychotic and suicidal, apparently as a result of the group's practices. A clinical history of the patient did not reveal any psychopathology in childhood or young adulthood. As a result of her group involvement, Ms. B could no longer think for herself, feared that she could not make friends, was no longer able to study, became laden with guilt, and lost her sense of reality. She took on schizophrenic-like symptomatology, at times becoming catatonic and withdrawn. While permanent scars remain, six years of psychotherapy restored Ms. B to a relatively high-functioning state.

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