Crossroads of Crisis: 1. Therapeutic Sources and Quasi-Therapeutic Functions of Post-Industrial Communes

The convergence of a number of distinct intellectual & therapeutic traditions in the mental health field has produced a conception of non-professional, quasi-therapeutic communities that profoundly influences contemporary communes. One of these traditions started with Freudian psychoanalytic theory & dynamic, individually-oriented psychotherapies built upon it. A second initially-independent tradition that influences the contemporary situation is the soc community psychiatric tradition, particularly the concept of "therapeutic communities." Another tradition that impinges on contemporary communalism stems from the sensitivity training-encounter movement. The central working hyp is that these therapeutic traditions began to converge during the post-WWII era & had become increasingly indistinguishable by the early 1960's. A crucial common strand underlying the convergence of these various traditions was an emphasis on non-professional, ongoing & continuous, multi-functional, quasi-therapeutic experiences for "normals"--"relatively healthy" affluent UMc Amer's. From this perspective, present-day Amer communes are seen as transient, age-graded, quasi-therapeutic sheltered workshops. By providing a temporary psycho-soc moratorium from competitive & conventional society, contemporary communes facilitate individual-psychol'al re-orientation, growth & re-integration into non-communal contexts. Modified HA.