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Chapter Four – The diachronic analysis – who, what and when? – Page 115
This table portrays an important view of the experience of the participants in this
learning group. It sets in the same row their hopes at the start of the semester and a
phrase to capture what they have learned at the end. Purely as a form of evaluation, it is
interesting for me to read down the list, to think of the individual, and to see if I can
make sense of the transition that has taken place between the collection of Hopes and
that of Outcomes.
This table highlights one perspective on the outcome of the work of the semester and
the course, and of the process that has taken place. This is the viewpoint of comparison
of some of what people say about themselves at the beginning and at the end of an
experience. An alternative viewpoint is for me to think about the people involved from
my perspective.
Dramatis Personae – The Students
Frances, Paula, Tom, Mary, Heidi, Ron, Kelly, Nancy and Veronica.
When first writing this chapter, I went through the group, listed each person, gave their
profession (e.g. psychotherapist, psychologist, doctor, nurse), and their workplace (e.g.
private practice, public mental health service, voluntary agency, residential setting). I
then tried to capture something of them by representing them in relation to the group in
one sentence. An example of me doing this is, ‘_____ is by (their) own admission a
beginner and an outsider in relation to psychoanalytic psychotherapy, but (they) want to
get in and learn more’.
On reflection, I am not going to describe individuals in that form. The individuals can
be seen in their own right, or at least in their own words (or in my account of those
words) at a number of points in the text that follows. To say more risks identifying them