IAGP (and group process)

[Adam Blatner]

 I think the following is an important development! The new name of the IAGP is the International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes (IAGP). Even though the acronym, the initials, remain IAGP and don't include a further "AGP" for sake of historical continuity and clarity and simplicity, the point here is that the Board has decided to include not just therapists but also leaders of other kinds of group processes. I am having a little trouble getting a clear reading on what the intention is regarding a range of associated group process leaders, though. I have asked and I gather they'll need to discuss further their meaning regarding a number of related fields:
      Group therapists who use a range of other schools beyond analytic or psychodramatic, such as Gestalt, TA, etc., evidently are included.
       Are creative arts therapists included? Drama Therapists? Expressive arts therapists (who use mixed modalities) and who also work with groups?
      What about Theatre of the Oppressed? Boal spoke to the IAGP around 1993, I think it was. Now his approach is spreading widely and being used in many settings, such as theatre-in-education and programs for fighting bullying, racism, environmental pollution, and many other social action concerns. 

       The new description at the IAGP website implies groups that deal with business, organization, and social action. That opens it up a lot: There is the whole field of applied behavioral science, derived from the work of Kurt Lewin's group in the late 1930s, their National Training Labs (NTL) and the "T-Groups" that came out of them, sensitivity training and encounter groups that followed this sub-cultural unfolding, and from those, innumerable programs and workshops for personal growth, human potential, and so forth. Are these helping-the-healthy-be-healthier group leaders to be included?
          Another branch involves theatre artists who lead groups for business people to promote spontaneity and thinking creatively.. Are they to be included?
        What about experiential therapists who lead groups in nature-hike workshops, "ropes courses," and challenge experiences?
         Indeed, Moreno's predicted "third psychiatric revolution" is proceeding--although it seems to have left psychiatry itself behind. (Alas, psychiatry is turning more towards the hard sciences, drugs, fancy equipment, neurology. There is much good there, but there is also an abdication from the dynamism of interactivity, talk, enactment, psycho- and socio-therapy. This isn't absolute, of course. There remains a therapeutically skilled and sensitive sector in psychiatry (physician MD trained), but it's getting smaller, proportionately.)
      Still the point is that groups do seem to be taking off, more group dynamics entering educational, religious, and other social institutions. 

      If the IAGP is to expand beyond therapy to include group process, what really does that mean? What kinds of groups would NOT be welcome at, say, the international conference to be held around the summer of 2009 in Rome, Italy?
           People who design and conduct live action role playing games?
               mystery theatre?  internet-online-drama activities?  experiential education?  large community celebrations and ceremonies?  I'm just brainstorming here, but it makes for an interesting challenge.
         This message is not only a heads-up to our new PNN newsletter editor, but also an invitation to you all to warm up to the question, think of associated groups you know of, different ways folks are using not just psychodrama, but also group work, group leadership. 
       I'm also acknowledging that some of these non-therapeutic approaches, such as Playback Theatre, have and will have relevance to our thinking about what groups can in turn inform our own theory and practice. (Yes, I know, Playback Theatre can be thought to be therapeutic in the larger sense--but it isn't meant as a type of therapy per se. It speaks to that wonderful interface in which various arts and community building activities can also promote health.)

    The good news is that if and when we get a reading from the IAGP board, we may be able to encourage other groups, societies, individuals, to join, affiliate, and thereby strengthen the organization. 

        I look forward to continuing progress on this new development. 

Adam Blatner, M.D.
(please reply to adam at blatner.com)
website: www.blatner.com/adam/   
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