Toward the therapeutic use of obscene language: a legal and clinical review.
G. J. Maier and R. D. Miller,
Bull. Amer. Acad. Psychiatry & the Law
21(2): 227-43, 1993.
Obscenity has been the subject of a series of court cases centered around the First Amendment, and
its interpersonal effects have been studied by psychotherapists and communications theorists. But
little has been written about the impact of the use of obscenity by patients in group settings to
discharge their feelings and to dominate and harass staff and other patients. The authors argue that
if staff are to be able to work effectively with patient populations who utilize obscenity routinely for
these purposes, they must become more comfortable with its use, and to treat it as another symptom
of the patients' interpersonal difficulties. Guidelines for the therapeutic use/management of obscenity
on the ward are offered. [References: 64]