Town Hall AGPA June 8th 2026

 

I was thrilled to see group therapy promoted nationally via a movie. “Group-The Schopenhauer Effect” is entertaining and puts group therapy center stage in the public eye.

 

It is advertised as a realistic presentation of group interaction, and that causes me some pause. This is theater, and it does not represent truly competent group therapy.  For example, there are unsettling boundary and ethics decisions.

 

Shortly after the film’s release, an NYT article entitled “When Group Therapy Went Heavy Meta” by journalist Amanda Hess raised the same concerns.

 

Recently, a post on the AGPA Facebook page said that the organization is considering using the movie as a teaching tool. That is an excellent idea as long as AGPA addresses the boundary violations and stresses that this is a movie, not a real therapy group. (The Hess article could be included in the course syllabus.)

 

The violations that I refer to are fairly blatant. The group leader invited the film director to be a member of the group while introducing him to the group as another member.  As soon as the director had the information he needed for the film, he left the group.  Furthermore, two actual members of the group were included in the filmed version.

 

I would hope for AGPA, the organization tasked with setting the standards for group therapy, not to imply that that is standard practice.