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Chapter Four – The diachronic analysis – who, what and when? – Page 124
1953), 6 to enter somewhere afresh that is their conductor’s but not theirs. I believe that
this group hate me for that. They also appear to find ways to show that hate to me, by
behaving badly, not coming out of their room until the last minute, not enabling the
‘first-years’ to pass them on the staircase, and so on.
I’m aware as I write that I am unearthing a lot of my own feelings and associations
about this experience. Some of this is in the nature of the transferential relationship that
the students form with The Agency, with me as Tutor, Course Director and Head of
Training (which on reflection must have made me seem overwhelming), and with the
course and the group, and in the case of my own responses, my countertransferential
relationship to the experience.
Summary to ‘Dramatis Personae and The Setting’
I trust that I have conveyed a succinct view of the context of the fieldwork project, in
particular, something of the worlds of the participants and of the group that Judi and I
form with them, as well as impressions of the issues that we bring. Next, I want to give
a narrative account of the semester, with week-by-week summaries of what took place,
so that I can then look in the Synchronic Analyses at a series of episodes in this tapestry
of experience in space and time.
Narrative account of the semester
The remainder of this chapter is a session-by-session account of the semester.
6 Winnicott (1953) developed the idea of the transitional object, often a favourite toy or blanket used by
the infant to mediate between ‘me’ and ‘not me’. Carrying this forward into adult development, most
people will have objects (which can be people, things or ideas) which fulfill this function at times of
transition or stress, which includes much of adult learning.