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The episode in the context of the session
Chapter Seven – A Discussion – Page 209
As noted above, this is Session Fourteen, the penultimate session of the semester and
the course. As in Session Eight, outlined in Chapter Six (The Eruption), the format for
this session is atypical. However, this session was intended to be different, whereas that
was because of unavoidable circumstances. In this case, the first hour is to be spent
discussing questions about the integration of the theory and practice of psychoanalytic
psychotherapy with which members of the group still want help. (Incidentally, the
analysis and interpretation below explores the structural impossibility of this primary
task for the session, and the inevitability of frustration as a result). 3
The discussion is to be followed in the second hour of the session by a case presentation
by one of the tutors, and discussion of that case by the group. As it happens, this
presentation was given by the researcher, who chose to present some challenging work
that had, on the face of it, not gone particularly well. There is some feedback on this in
Session Fifteen (see Chapter Nine), where it appears that the case presentation as well
as what happened in the first hour of this fourteenth session have had quite an impact,
apparently positive, on some group members and their experience of the semester.
Events of the session prior to the extract
All except Mary are present (ten people). After some discussion about the imminent end
of the course, graduation and the need for students to settle their financial accounts,
Tom brings in his own strong responses to the case material in the previous week’s
3 In the studies carried out by the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations (Trist & Murray, 1990), and
following in the tradition of Bion’s (1961) work with groups, the primary task of a workplace or other
organizational setting is kept in mind throughout, and moves away from it can then be more readily
observed. This notion is invaluable to this study.