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Preface
In this preface, I want to assist you, the reader, to engage with my thesis, ‘The Learning
Group – Dynamics, Concepts and Issues: a group-analytic ethnography of
psychoanalytic psychotherapy training’. The thesis is an account of practitioner
research, a qualitative inquiry into aspects of my own work as a trainer of
psychotherapists. A central feature of the research is this ‘inside-outness’, starting from
ones own practice experience and seeking to elaborate and exemplify that, rather than
looking in on the practice experience of another from a theoretically positioned
methodological perspective. I should also make clear that although the work touches on
anthropology, my own home academic discipline is psychology, whilst this research is
carried out within the practice discipline of psychotherapy.
One of my aims in this preface is to highlight two important features of the thesis, focus
and metonymy. Another aim is to account for my choices about presentational style, in
relation to position, person, and tense. Details of these aims follow.
Two important features of the thesis – focus and metonymy
Focus first. Dictionary definitions of focus typically refer to a point of convergence, as,
for example, in rays of light being drawn to a focus. My own use of focus refers more to
the convergence of attention at a particular point or level.
In any situation, there is a range of possibilities for the focus of attention. For example,
in this study, when I was carrying out the original professional work that I am now
studying, the training of psychotherapists, my focus at the time was principally on my
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