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Chapter Six – Part of a Session – Page 187
research applied to such phenomena can illuminate the personal and group elements of
experiences such as this type of learning. I also argue that the symbolisation. 2
The session and the moment
The moment I will explore takes place almost exactly at the mid-point of the semester.
It comes just after the break in the middle of the middle session. The attendance record
of the semester in Table 4.2 on Page 121 shows that Frances, Heidi, Kelly, Paula. Ron,
Tom and Veronica are present with Bill and Judi, and Mary and Nancy are absent.
In this session (number 8 of 15), as the Table 4.2 also shows, there is effectively no
presenter. Kelly had previously put her name forward to present her clinical work on
this occasion, but had rung Judi shortly before the session to say that she had been too
unwell to prepare a presentation. Judi had said that we would manage. However, Kelly
wanted very much to come anyway, and did so. As there is no clinical material
available, the first half of the session is spent looking at questions and issues invited by
the tutors from members of the group. As the group resumes work after the break in the
session, Heidi seems upset, and has just said in response to Bill’s enquiry that she feels
dead. The transcript beginning on the next page follows from that point. This is
presented as a Sticky Moment, in that there is an acute momentary disruption of the
flow of communication.
2 See Chapter Two Part Two, Page 85 for an account of the significance of this characterisation, made in
each of these five synchronic analyses, of the episode considered in this chapter as showing a
predominance of one of Freud’s (1915) characteristics of the unconscious. The aim is not to reduce the
richness of the particular episode, but rather merely to highlight a key aspect of the unconscious in
operation. The capacity to recognise these phenomena is a key feature of this epistemology.