ct of the enrichment group not only makes it
more complex, but also increases its potential. This is particularly
true after the experience is over. From our knowledge of encounter
groups we are aware of the problems encountered by the individual who,
after experiencing a new and invigorating openness and warmth in
interaction with others returns home to an atmosphere in which a similar
quality of relationship cannot be sustained unless there are already
friends and associates at home who have had the benefit of earlier
encounter experiences. In the case of our marriage enrichment retreats,
the experience is not gained by an isolated individual, but by a
preexisting social unit, so that new levels of openness and warmth which
the couple have experienced in the group can continue to be maintained
after their return home. This would suggest that the "casualty rates"
for couples would not be nearly so high as for individuals. We know of
no precise study that has investigated this, but our general impressions
would seem to confirm it.

The second significant difference between encounter and marriage
enrichment groups raises a somewhat controversial question. Encounter
groups are more ready to evoke negative interaction between
participants, while we place major emphasis upon positive interaction.

If our judgment of encounter groups is in this respect inaccurate we are
open to correction. We have, however, gained the impression from many
sources that an important technique used in these groups is to provide
opportunities for the participants to secure cathartic release of their
pent-up hostilities, including hostilities engendered by, or projected
upon the group leader or one or more of its members. We recognize that
many people in our culture are pregnant with suppressed hostility or
rage, and that the provision of properly controlled opportunities for
its release may constitute a commendable service; and since the group
members are generally strangers who will not be personally and socially
involved later, no entangling complications are likely to follow.

For our married couples, the situation is different. We do not mean that
they do not have hostile feelings toward each other. They often do, and
this comes out clearly and unmistakably. We do not mean, either, that
healthy discharge of these feelings might not be good for them--in our
therapeutic work with individual couples in conjoint interviews, we make
full use of