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Chapter Four – The diachronic analysis – who, what and when? – Page 116
to no useful end, and tends to emphasise the role of the individual in the events that
follow, whereas I am more interested in foregrounding the vertex or viewpoint of the
group. At the same time, later in this chapter (see ‘And Now in A Different Form’), I do
want to highlight some of the issues that people bring as part of the context. There, I
have decided to describe these issues as I see them, but to detach each issue from any
particular person. For example, with the representation at the end of the previous
paragraph, I might include, ‘… being or feeling an outsider in relation to psychoanalytic
psychotherapy and wishing to change that’. Although some readers may know or feel
able to guess with accuracy the owner of all or some of the issues, I am neither
encouraging nor enabling this.
The Setting trope
I will now say something about ‘The Setting’. As an immigrant to New Zealand from
the United Kingdom in 1995, I would argue that I have since then been engaged in an
informal long-term research project involving participant observation. I have had to
migrate successfully. I have done a range of work in different settings, in The Agency
as head of training, as a trainer, and as a psychotherapist; in the private practice of
psychology and psychotherapy as part of various groups of practitioners; at universities,
as a locum psychologist in a counselling service and as a clinical supervisor of
psychotherapy trainees; and as a consultant to work teams and organisations. After
some years, I moved to working full-time in solo private practice, much of that in long-
term and often more-than-once-each-week psychotherapy with individuals, and as a
clinical supervisor of others. I have had a long-standing involvement in the development
of group work. Throughout, I have done some couple therapy and co-therapy with a
number of colleagues. Eventually, I became formally engaged in this research, and
hence became a researcher again.