Development of Research on Group Psychotherapy. Epistemological Notes and Survey on the Set(ting).

Abstract

The understanding of the clinical therapeutic process and the possibility of studying it from a scientific point of view are central issues in our work of elaboration about research and assessment of group psychotherapy. In a perspective in which theoretical reflection and clinical practice constantly interlace, stimulating and supporting each other, we tried to develop an integration of the clinical requirements, with the epistemological issues and the social and scientific ones. This conducted us to reflect about the scientific qualification of research and about criteria and parameters to distinguish between what is scientific knowledge and what is not; to elaborate an hypotesis of a scientific status of the qualitative which could take into due account the complexity of the object under observation (the patients, the groups, the therapeutic relation, the Set(ting)...); to consider the set(ting) in real terms (what it’s characterised by, which elements it’s composed of, which are the modalities of its functioning, what we actually do, how we do it, etc...); to elaborate a complex model of empirical research which takes into account the various aspects and levels of the therapeutic process and their interconnections.