HELPLESS HELPERS: AN INTERGROUP CONFLICT INTERVENTION

This report of an intervention in a mental health care institution illustrates that exchanging distorted group images is an effective strategy for improving situations of intergroup conflict. The intervention is especially effective if the group images are not attacked, which tends to reinforce rather than mitigate them, but if they are undermined in a nondirective way instead The implementation of this nondirective process intervention is discussed in depth to demonstrate how the original intervention technique is enriched in several respects.