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Chapter Six
Part of a Session
The Eruption
This segment was chosen
because of the abrupt
nature of the way it
becomes part of the
session, effectively like a
kind of eruption, and
hence the title. The other
side of the coin is that it
could be called ‘The
Containment’, because it
seems that that is part of
what eventually
transpires.
The predominant
characteristic of the
unconscious in this
session would seem to be
symbolisation.
Whilst some difficulty is
experienced in
representing experience
in words, the intense
frustration of one
member of the group
comes to stand for (and
hence, to symbolise) the
frustration of many
others.
Chapter Six – Part of a Session – Page 206
Description Analysis Interpretation
There is some setting
of a scene, because the
regular task of the
group is not possible
due to illness and no
back-up presenter.
Four issues are
discussed in the group,
but the process ends at
the break with a feeling
of distance of the
members of the group
from each other and the
reality of the topics.
In the break, there is
something of a scuffle
between the tutors.
After the break, an
incident occurs (the
eruption). This leads to
a broadening of
discussion, and a series
of acknowledgements
about the experience of
the semester and the
session.
One member would
rather be at the gym –
maybe this is a kind
of gym, with posing,
sparring and other
performances
The group discusses,
and inevitably enacts,
issues of managing
countertransference
and distance. This
discussion takes place
in relation to clinical
work, but can be
thought about in
more personal and
group terms.
The break is an
opportunity to access
and explore the
experience with the
group via
displacement, but
instead is needed for
survival by the tutors.
The complex and
emerging culture of
the group includes
rivalry, hostility,
keeping up spirits in
chaos, abandonment.
This is possibly just a
gap in the schedule, or
alternatively and much
more likely, a
regression by the group
in response to that gap,
but linked at a deeper
level to the difficulty of
the task of the semester.
Key phenomena
include tutor inattention
to task, the adolescence
of the group, the pain of
learning, a
manifestation of the
anti-group, and the
failure (possibly
because of unprocessed
anxiety) to make more
use of the group in the
fulfilment of the task.
What erupts is
contained, witnessed,
and refereed. It can also
be seen as a reflection
of themes faced by
patients and therapists
in clinical work and by
students learning. It
highlights the potential
of the groupanalytically
informed
model of teaching and
learning.
Table 6.2
A summary of description, analysis and interpretation of data in Chapter Six.