The structure and dynamics of organizations and groups

Abstract

This book deals with social psychiatry, a new psychiatric specialty.In a text of some 200 pages much is encompassed which is important for those interested in the larger implications of group dynamics. A difficulty with this book is that it contains many new and old words in new contexts. A few paragraphs on semantics in the preface and a 14-page glossary do not solve this problem entirely. It includes not only many words from group dynamics literature in general, but also many which seem to be of the author's coinage. The author says on page 79, "Because the terminology of group dynamics has rarely been precise and has become more and more vulgarized, the temptation to coin new words is almost irresistible." The reader soon discovers that Dr. Berne fails repeatedly to resist this temptation. Often he slips into an even graver semantic sin, that of torturing old words into