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The Technique of Group Treatment: The Collected Papers of Louis R. Ormont. Edited by Lena Blanco Furgeri. Madison, Connecticut: Psychosocial Press, 2001, 399 pp., $39.95.
Experto credite.
[Trust one who has gone through it.]
Virgil, Aeneid bk. 11, 1. 283
Lena Blanco Furgeri, the editor of this volume, characterizes Dr. Louis R. Ormont as a Virgil in many people's lives, "guiding them through the labyrinth of the unconscious." Dr. Ormont has been through it all and is a trustworthy guide. He was there in the beginning in 1942 when he tells us there were fewer than 20 people who identified themselves as group therapists, and his contributions continue to the present day, recently receiving a standing ovation from hundreds of his colleagues after a giving a day-long seminar for AGPA. Fortunately for us, he has written about his experiences over the years, and Dr. Furgeri has collected 24 of his papers. The earliest in the collection was published in 1957 and the latest in 1999.
After an introduction by Fugeri, and an overview of modern group process by Michael Brook, the papers are divided into seven sections. The first includes two recent papers by Dr. Ormont, outlining the rise of modern group analysis and its emphasis on "the group, as a whole, as a force for growth which no therapist can equal" (p. 38). The next section is on the newly formed group, which focuses on the group contract and its use in resolving resistances to progress. Following these are sections on resistances, counter-transference, and conjoint therapy. Next is a section on bridging, a group technique that Ormont has named and developed, which...