An integral part of the development of a therapeutic community is the careful consideration by staff members of the patients' responses to them. Such responses frequently reflect real discord within the group, that is to say that complaints and criticisms of the staff made by the patients do not necessarily reflect only individual problems and pathology, but often serve as a guide to understanding the nature of patient-staff relationships.
Patient criticisms of staff treatment approaches often reveal the underlying conflicts within the staff members, who seek to liberate themselves from earlier therapeutic models. It is essential for the growth of the team that the staff be helped to thus understand their own struggles so that they may come to develop increasingly more realistic approaches to therapeutic relations.
Must a staff concern itself with the attainment of therapeutic perfection? Not at all. Realistically, a staff is doing very well if it is doing 'good enough'. Winnicott's concept of the 'good enough' mother provides an adequate model in this regard. An environment in which the needs of the patients are considered by a responsive and openminded staff with a fair degree of flexibility is 'good enough'. With this kind of understanding a team is able to accept their own imperfections and recognize the fact that try as they might, they will not always be able to satisfy the needs of their patients.