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Chapter Five - A Beginning – Page 171
angrily) to attend for two meetings offered over the break of sixteen weeks between one
academic year 7 and the next, and the Christmas function (just mentioned for the first
time here in the learning group) when only two people came to a planned meeting. Judi
speaks about her fear that the water that she is drinking has been poisoned. Bill is keen
to look at what the group may have contributed to the previous semester, Semester 3,
being a difficult experience, leading to a complaint by at least one student about the
teaching. Judi then notes that it is too late to ask about the Christmas Party, but goes on
to report her noticing of her experience of rivalry with her from Paula (which Judi sees
as now apparently resolving) and Kelly (which Judi sees as now apparently emerging).
The section after the break
The group seems to work well together, with many members making apparently
pertinent contributions to understanding the clinical material that is being discussed.
When the group gets to the denouément, 8 the patient turns out to be a 28-year-old man,
rather than a woman as many (but not all) of the group have thought. Frances (as Mary
did before her, when she presented her work and the same thing happened) then
acknowledges that during the discussion, she heard the ‘she’s’ as being about her rather
than her male patient.
7 This teaching is taking place in the Southern Hemisphere, where the academic year is concurrent with
the calendar year, rather than commencing in the last third of the calendar year as in the Northern
Hemisphere.
8 This term, borrowed from detective fiction, is used for the part of each session when the presenter
breaks their silence to share with the group the details of gender, age, presenting problem, duration and
course of therapy, and diagnosis and formulation of the client or patient’s presentation, all of which have
been deliberately withheld by the presenter up to this point.