To the method of the intended dynamic group psychotherapy

The intended dynamic group psychotherapy, the heritage of the GDR in the field of psychotherapy, is still hardly known in the ''West''. At first sight this way of therapy seems to be very similar to western analytical concepts of group therapy. But studying the issue carefully one discovers an irritating strangeness in substance and terminology. This is a critical treatise of the method of the intended dynamic group psychotherapy in order to explain this strange concept and make it more tangible and understandable. The article also works out the elements in common with the western methods of group therapy, which are orientated according to psychoanalysis. It contains details about the specific therapeutical procedure and the developements within groups in each phase. Moreover the paper deals with the ambivalent relationship to psychoanalysis, which has developed as a result of the historical circumstances. Tn order to bring out the differences and elements of common the authores compaires the intended dynamic group psychotherapy in specific details with the group psychotherapy of the, ''Gottingen model''.