P. T. H. M. van der Linden: Various models of therapeutic communities
The development of the T.C. in the Netherlands has run parallel with the extension of psychotherapy and an increasing differentiation in the methods or schools of treatment. Psychotherapy in smalt groups seems to keep a more tentral place in dutch 'psychotherapeutic communities' than in british ones. Starting from the division into three of Wolberg in the realm of psychotherapy, three models of T.C.s are distinguished: a reconstructive orientated T.C. fitting in with the psychodynamic conception of personality and the aims of psychoanalytic treatment; a re-educative T.C. whose aim is: the growth of interactional competence of clients by developping as much as possible their strong sides; a supportive T.C. primarily aimed at-alleviating symptonms, to come to rest after a crisis situation and help resocialisation.
The author stresses than an important attitude which could be passed from the T.C.-movement to the professional development of psychotherapy, lies in the emphasis which is placed within the T.C. on the responsibility of the clients for their own treatment. The paradoxical nature of the expertise of psychotherapists, in contrast with other professional specialists in our society, is thus the more strongly underlined.