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Bait and fishhook
Chapter Seven – A Discussion – Page 230
At one level, the fishhook represents a challenge issued by Paula to Judi and Bill,
questioning their position and even their authenticity. Where are they in the food chain?
The teaching couple and their role in the resolution of
developmental tasks
Developmentally, children need for their parents to survive a series of attacks, both in
actions and in phantasy, by the child on each of the parents and on the relationship
between them. By extension of this psychoanalytic framework to the context of the
group, there needs to be an individual and collective transition of this challenge by both
staff and students: students need to be able to grapple with what they are being taught
and by whom they are being taught it, and teachers need to able to survive the challenge
that is involved in that. In this context, with a couple of teachers, a man and woman,
able to interact creatively with each other, there is the potential for much resolution of
this challenge.
Condensed roles
Bill’s last response of the extract, to Paula, comes from a condensation of his roles as
researcher and tutor (and all of the echoes behind tutor, of course director, head of
training, and so on). Training can promote the avoidance of multiple roles in various
situations, but it can also develop the capacity for individuals to manage the multiplicity
that inevitably occurs. Because there is available the group context, there is the
opportunity for members to share and participate in engaging directly with this
challenge.