Beyond Words: Story of Sensitivity Training and the Encounter Movement (Russell Sage Foundation. Publications)

In Beyond Words, Kurt Back offers a critical analysis of the modern pilgrims who journey on weekends and summers to centers for group processes, encounter, and personality growth. He uses biography, sociological analysis, and current history to complete a picture of the intensive group process, sensitivity training, T-groups, encounters, and their off-shoots. The book, first published in 1972, emphasizes the social movement aspect of sensitivity training—what it means for today's society, its promises, and its threats. It is an enlightening examination of a development in the science of humankind at the climax of its career as a social movement.