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Chapter Seven – A Discussion – Page 225
The students seem to have difficulty grasping the task of the session, but at the same
time, this is not clearly put back to them by the staff. Whilst the invitation to them is, ‘to
bring forward questions that remain for them in terms of the issues that they raised at
the beginning of the semester’, some find it hard to do this. Instead, they bring forward
reflections of experiences and learnings in the course of the semester. Some seem to
want answers from the tutors: others seem to want to bring and share experiences and
reflections.
The question is revised a short way in to the session to where do students find
themselves as the semester and the course ends. One possible answer seems to be lost.
The use of case material is offered by one student (Kelly) as a remedy, with the practice
of each student bringing a case ensuring that all are on a level, and that there is material
each week. In turn, this gives a security that is different to that present when the course
depends more on the tutors to teach. One student, however, reports having liked being
taught, because she has so few cases to bring. With hindsight, I wonder if this is partly
an expression of anxiety, disavowing her clinical experience in order to try and avoid
painful personal and interpersonal learning on the course.
Judi talks at some length and with some openness about how she would approach
gaining consent for the use of clinical material, that is, by writing the study first, and
then asking the patient for permission to use the material. This is a complex
intervention, on one level evoking responses suggesting views that a degree of
manipulation would be involved (and indeed Nancy identifies with the apparently
‘coerced’ patient), and yet it is a creative solution to the intrusion to the work that can
happen when the patient knows that they are being written about. This can potentially