Group Psychotherapy in Israel: History and Main Trends

Abstract

In Israel, the sense of belonging carries special meaning for historical and contemporary reasons. Since its establishment, Israel, with a background of centuries of persecution of the Jews, has been subjected to a consistent threat of war and terror that makes it a traumatized society. On the one hand, this intensifies social cohesiveness, especially in times of war. Yet many of the threats pose existential, political, and ideological dilemmas. The trauma of the Holocaust coupled with the continuous existence of wars enhanced the development of special kinds of groups. No wonder group therapy in Israel flourishes, perhaps more than in any other Western country (Nuttman-Shwartz & Weinberg, 2002).