Mental health and group tensions

摘要

The author points out that, with the development of technology in industry and the resultant more-technical roles demanded of workers, communication between them and between all persons in an industrial organization becomes of primary importance. This is particularly so because of the constant demands for change within an industrial organization. Any change, however minor, will inevitably involve a wide area of the organization, and special attention will therefore have to be paid to communication between persons.The author goes on to describe some of the investigations which have been made by the Institute of Preventive Medicine, Leyden, and indicates the extreme difficulty of obtaining accurate information. He shows also how the different attitudes of persons within a factory can lead to completely different perceptions of the field and of the attitudes of others within the same organization. He concludes that the main task of the mental health workers in industry lies in the prevention of tensions within it.One of the means of preventing tensions is to aim at a concept of “productive collaboration” within a factory. This task is seen as a special kind of therapy which must concern all levels of the factory. The author describes a procedure of investigation—diagnostic and therapeutic—within a factory, commencing with a phase of introduction, a pilot study, extensive individual interviewing, group interviewing, and a more specifically therapeutic phase, in which groups or specific individuals are enabled to talk their problems out. Finally, the investigating team must take steps to prevent situations of tension recurring, and, before leaving, must be certain that the plant is capable of maintaining a healthy equilibrium by itself.