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Chapter Six
Part of a Session (The Eruption – Session 8)
INTRODUCTION
There is a particularly dense moment in this session, after the break in the
middle.
This chapter is an exploration of that moment, of its place in the narrative of
the session and the semester, and of some of the range of meanings of the
moment in group and individual terms.
There is also a consideration of how the moment is handled by the teachers,
the students and the group, including the outcomes that ensue.
Theoretical and philosophical framing of the study
In this chapter, as in the other analytic chapters, I need to elaborate how I am
investigating, as well as demonstrating the fruits of that investigation in relation to the
particular data being studied.
Regarding the investigation, I have selected a moment (or rather a series of moments in
chronological sequence, in other words an episode) from my experience of the semester
and from consideration of the transcript of the audiotape of the whole session. A
summary of the transcript is given below in the analysis of the events of the session. I
extracted the particular episode, and that portion of the transcript is reproduced after the
summary. From studying that extract, I recorded in the right hand column of the
transcript of the extract my associations at that time to what I was reading. The best way
that I can describe this is that it is like viewing an impressionist painting, where
impressions emerge in the viewer from a sustained, persistent but un-anxious scrutiny. 1
1 This is an example of where a clinical capability can be adapted to enable the analysis of the data of
experience. I believe most experienced clinicians would acknowledge the experience of the awareness of
patterns of unconscious competence such as this in their routine practice. This issue is discussed
elsewhere in the thesis, notably in the Preface, in Chapter One and in Chapter Ten.