title: Retrospective study of similarities and relations between American drug-free and European therapeutic communities for children and adults.
abstract: This article focuses on the similarities and relations between the European therapeutic community for children and adults on the one hand and the American drug-free "concept" therapeutic community on the other. Both approaches are reviewed in a historical and comparative perspective with special attention to several critical issues: democracy versus hierarchy, self-help versus professionalism, psychoanalysis versus behaviorism and concept versus social learning. These two different TC-approaches can be considered as subdivisions of one modality, namely an environment for social learning in which living together in a group can be regarded as the primary agent of growth and human development. In recent years there has been a tendency towards further integration of these two approaches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedagogics, University of Gent, Belgium. Eric.Broekaert@rug.ac.be
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Broekaert
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vanderplasschen
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Temmerman
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Ottenberg
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kaplan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001527:Behaviorism / Q000266:history*; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005060:Europe; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011056:Political Systems / Q000266:history; D011572:Psychoanalysis / Q000266:history; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012657:Self-Help Groups / Q000266:history*; D013808:Therapeutic Community; D014481:United States