Encounter Groups

In Search For Community: Encounter Groups And Social Change

This book consists of papers presented at two symposia at AAAS Annual meetings. It enables us to evaluate the new groups and techniques in comparison with other phenomena in the society and with rituals in other societies and times, clearly placing them in the history of ideas.

Carl Rogers on Encounter Groups

Carl Rogers coined the term, 'The Basic Encounter Group' to identify encounter groups that operated on the principles of the person-centered approach. It is the contention that the person-centered Basic Encounter Group is quite unique and, in fact, offers a different paradigm for group therapy. Indeed, the application of the premises of the person-centered approach in group therapy requires a re-examination of many of the usual presuppositions about group function. This includes presuppositions about leader target population, size of group, establishment of goals and ground rules, and facilitator behavior.

Encounter: The Theory and Practice of Encounter Groups