The Oneida Community's practice in which a member sat silently while the whole community or a committee listed their faults, used as its main instrument of discipline and cohesion.
In more detail
Noyes described it as taking the place of backbiting; the subject was advised not to reply, and those who stayed refractory could withdraw or be expelled. Nordhoff, a visitor in the 1870s, called it the community's main instrument of government. Britannica notes that sessions, also called 'cures', were an ordeal that probably had therapeutic value but also served as a shaming technique enforcing social control. The practice was reported to originate in Noyes's seminary days at Andover.