This paper aims to explore the dynamics of communities which decline and die.
The example of the Marlborough Day Hospital in the 1970s is used and analysed as a form of fieldwork.
It was found that the demise of the community can be traced to ambiguities in the attitudes to authority on which the development of the community was based in the first place.
The demise of a therapeutic community is a common occurrence, and often attributed to the unfriendly attentions of some outside agency. But the paper explores the possibility that certain internal dynamics within the community need examination as well as the relations to the outside world, and the hosting organisation.
The findings add to the importance of understanding the dynamics of therapeutic communities, not just for their therapeutic benefit, but for the survival of the community itself.
