Participant self-disclosure in group therapy

Thirty-nine adult hospitalized psychiatric patients, 18 men and 21 women, participated in a study aimed at investigating the relationship between participant self-disclosure in a therapy group and personality and therapy outcome. The results showed that in this type of sample the more disturbed patients disclosed more, which is contrary to results usually obtained among normals and neurotics. Similarly, for some patients, higher degrees of disclosure were related to worse therapy outcomes. These results indicate that the indiscriminate insistence of some therapists on selfdisclosure is inappropriate with hospitalized patients. Improving self-esteem by encouraging positively toned self-disclosures appears more promising.Barbara Polikoff, formerly a Research Assistant at Friends Hospital. The authors want to express their appreciation to Dr. Paul Curnow and Michael Bopp who conducted the groups under study and to Joseph Sillitti for his assistance in the data analysis.