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Chapter Seven – A Discussion – Page 223
a new beginning and attachment elsewhere (possibly with a transformed
identity);
the need to withdraw transferences from the tutors, other students and the group.
An awareness of these issues provides a context and elements of a framework for the
interpretive steps that follow.
Group manifestations of these issues
From the group-analytic perspective, the group (and events and processes within it) as a
level of understanding has the potential both to serve as an expression of developmental
issues (for both individuals and the group), and also to facilitate progress with, and
where appropriate, resolution of those issues.
Throughout the course, the group is invaluable in dealing with issues including naivety;
the need to face into, rather than run away from, difference and anxiety; and the
understanding and management of projections. In this semester in particular, members
also have to address the ending of their own participation in this group and the rest of
the course, and very significantly, the ending of the group itself.
Together with the framework of the developmental issues, the group perspective can
inform consideration of the images and commentary that follow next.
Images in the work
At this point in the data-analytic process, I am collecting some associations that occur to
me in response to particular words and phrases, and which can function as building