The Origins of Group Therapy and Lay Psychotherapy

Robert Jastrow, world-renown astrophysicist wrote a book, God and the Astronomers, describes the astronomical discoveries of recent years and the theological implications of the new insights afforded by science into mankind’s place in the cosmos. He made his argument to accept the validity of the Big Bang and the fact that the universe began in a moment of creation. When I read the book, I was struck by the metaphor that reality is like a mountain.  The scientists climbed up one side of the mountain and the theologians climbed up the other side and when both reached the summit of truth they shook hands. However, the scientists of the day rejected Jastrow’s premise.

Seeing the connection between science and religion also was part of the origin of group therapy and lay psychotherapy. Recently Joe Pratt (who reads my blogs along with his wife Kim) and I were talking about cognitive psychotherapy and group therapy. Joe casually mentioned that his grandfather was a pioneer of both forms of therapy which initially combined science and religion. He loaned me a book, The Emmanuel Movement, that describes his grandfather’s work along with others in the early stages of both types of therapy.

Dr. Joseph Pratt, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, started group theory called classes. He was a person who was recognized for his originality and thinking outside of the box. He was the first to reduce family visitors to visit units where he cared for his patients because he already saw that family members could be part of the neurosis that patients were enduring. He honed his theory and actions between 1930 – 1952.

He was a man ahead of his time, a visionary, who first saw that a client must believe in the therapist and his positive attitude toward them. This was a half century before the Stanford Study indicated the importance of self-fulfilling prophecy. He honored his patients. The study reflected that people saw students as A students, that is what they achieved, and if the teacher saw them as C students, they tended to gravitate to that level of success. We achieve who a mentor/therapist/teacher thinks what we can achieve. This was revolutionary in education.

His inroads to helping people improve their mental health were also seen in his thoughts about individual psychotherapy which at the time was referred to as thought control/moral mental reeducation. If you change the way you think about yourself and others, you can change your feelings. This became the forerunner of what we know today to be cognitive behavioral psychology where David Burns and Aaron Beck worked on the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. They stood on the shoulders of Dr. Pratt to make cognitive psychology one of the most effective modes of therapy today. It is part of my wheelhouse of approaches to helping others.

On his 60^th birthday in 1955 he was celebrated for his groundbreaking way of helping others. He was a medical doctor and psychologist. Someone paid tribute to him by saying that “there is only one Dr. Joseph Pratt.” We must recognize his grit as well as he and his ideas ran into the prejudice of the medical establishment and other religious groups such as Christian Scientists, et al. People tend to forget that anyone who starts a movement must have the combination of courage and creativity. We as people always tend to resist change of any kind including visionaries who can see beyond the norm. “Ah, but a man’s reach must exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for.” (Robert Browning)

I believe that he also believed, as Robert Jastrow did, in the interface between religion and science. We remember that the work of group and individual therapy began in the context of the Emmanuel Church in Boston.

Today we can also see this merging of religion and psychology in the three levels of Positive Psychology. The first level is that of pleasure, the second level is connection with others and valuing those relationships, and the third level is believing in a cause in life that provides meaning and purpose outside of yourself, something that serves other people. The third level is also found by many as connecting to God and the resulting happiness that emerges from that relationship.

It strikes me as a similar idea of Dr. Joseph Pratt. I respectfully disagree with the comment that there is only one Joseph Pratt. Let’s not forget his namesake, the other descendant, Joseph Pratt of Wayne, Pennsylvanua who embodies family, faith, and legacy,