INPATIENT PSYCHOTHERAPY - INTEGRATIVE OR INTEGRATING - CORRECTIONS AND POSITION

In recent observations/publications on psychoanalytically slanted in-p atient psychotherapy, the concept of bipolar clinical group psychother apy presented in 1964 by myself and the people who were then working w ith me is occasionally mentioned and contrasted with so-called integra tive therapy. A fundamental error of comprehension underlies this thin king: it is true that bipolar group psychotherapy was developed within particular boundary conditions; it was not, however, meant primarily as an organizational model, but rather as a dialectic-dynamic integrat ional concept. Misconceptions and completely wrong assignments of the opposite meaning that have crept into the literature over the course o f time should be corrected: for example, the relation to the therapeut ic community and function/structure of the therapy team. The viewpoint is put forward that the possible idea of a primary integrivity is not very realistic, unless the different intentions and processes are lev elled off. The intentions/processes have their own origins and develop their individual effectiveness within the overall ''multipolar'' fiel d of forces of the therapeutic (dosed-loop system). The constant task of integration consists in promoting cohesive vectors while recognizin g/coping with interference fields tending naturally against integratio n.