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The Colditz Syndrome: The Need to Escape from Group Therapy

WPF and St Thomas' Hospital, London.

Patients who seek psychotherapy do so with the desire to be assisted in their endeavour to escape and be free of their internal conflicts, psychological pain and the distress which impairs and disturbs their ability to be at peace with themselves and others. Patients who choose group therapy will encounter certain dynamics in the group from the moment of joining, which will provoke the desire to escape from the group and its containing boundaries. The author suggests that, in order to escape successfully from the group - and essentially the neurosis which the patient brings to the group - there is a need to integrate the good enabling/holding aspects of the group with the perceived restrictive/punitive elements. The article uses the met aphor of the group as a castle and makes a comparison with Colditz Castle during the Second World War

Key Words: boundaries • endings • escaping from therapy • splitting • sub-groups

Group Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 2, 273-286 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/05333160122077875


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