As a patient in a hospital following the therapeutic community model, I found that the doctors frequently made authoritative statements but misleadingly phrased these as coming from "the group," even though they were clearly coming directly from the psychiatrists. The most notable example occurred when a patient on the ward committed suicide while on a weekend leave. The ward meeting on Monday morning began with the doctors entering together after the other staff members and patients had already assembled. One of the doctors then made a peculiar series of statements. "The group is quite upset by Bill's death." None of us had yet had a chance to express our feelings. "Everyone is feeling insecure, since the hospital is supposed to be a safe place where people are protected from their suicidal feelings." There was no chance to find out whether or not that was true, since he quickly went on, "In order to help everyone feel more secure, the group has decided to lock the ward for the next weeks." The group, of course, had decided nothing. The psychiatrists had decided, but by attributing their actions to "the group," they were mystifying the source of power within the group, causing the patients to doubt their own perceptions of what had gone on.
Judi Chamberlin, pp 136-137, On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Heath System, 1977.