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Chapter Seven – A Discussion – Page 229
the infant needs in phantasy to both attack and to destroy the object, so that a
representation of it can then be taken inside.
This characterisation of the unconscious life of the learning group, developed elsewhere
but highlighted here by the opportunity to consider primitive aspects of individual and
group mental life, illustrates well the array of possibilities for understanding the
learning group and using it to promote learning.
What does consideration of the reference locator reveal?
We very much get to Task in this session. For the first time, the staff present and hence
model not a carefully chosen sample of work in which the group gets to be the more
exposed, but more a true sample of themselves working in their version of the tradition
they are teaching, difficulties and all. This contribution is primarily Clinical. The staff
also get to show more of themselves thinking and feeling in action, which are Group
contributions. This sense of balance and integration, between the elements (Clinical,
Group and Task), and also between the staff and the students in the group, seems to
represent important integration taking place at individual and group levels by the end of
the first half of this session.
Underlying stories:
(These ‘stories’ that follow here are threads of meaning that can be teased out of the
condensation of dynamics that are present in this session, and which can be linked to the
developmental challenges faced by participants in the group. They go further here than
‘Images in the work’, above, in which, for example, ‘bait’ was also included).