Therapeutic Communities, Family Therapy, and Humanistic Psychology: History and Current Examples

Abstract

This article discusses the use of residential therapeutic communities (TCs) to help addicts recover. The European and American antecedents of the TC and the model’s further evolution and dispersion are described. The increasing openness of the TC toward the outside world and its changed attitude toward family involvement have played important roles in the evolution of the TC. In this context, the article also pays attention to the family approach in the early TC and the major family therapeutic schools that influenced the model, specifically contextual therapy. A renewed attention to its humanistic roots can preserve the TC from becoming just another substance abuse treatment modality. However, good functioning of the TC as humanistic organization also requires openness, professionalism, and scientific input. Those elements are as safeguards against destructive charismatic leadership and insularity.