Group psychotherapy is characterized by the fact that the meeting between the group members constitutes an essential part of the therapeutic process. The way in which this meeting is described in the literature on group psychotherapy is explored.

Psychoanalytically oriented authors attribute a purely instrumental function to the relationships between group members: their meeting is a means to an end. This is in sharp contrast to the existentialistic view, which attaches great value to a real, authentic encounter between group members. This type of meeting seems to be ignored in the psychoanalytic literature.

An attempt is made to explain this apparent omission, and to bridge the gap between the previously mentioned views on the significance of the interhuman factor in group psychotherapy. When both views are considered as complementary, the meeting between group members is not only a means to an end, but also an end in its own right.