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Chapter Seven – A Discussion – Page 234
Substantively, a range of aspects of this session have been highlighted, either directly
from the text, or through the use of devices such as the Reference Locator as well as
metaphor, allegory and metonymy. These aspects highlight both missed opportunities as
well as clear examples of unexamined phenomena, but also demonstrate well the group
in existence and in action, not least as a kind of continuo 17 to the more obvious Clinical
and Task aspects of what is going on in the work of the Semester.
A table summarising the description, analysis and interpretation of data in this chapter is
on the next page. As noted in the table, the predominant characteristic of the
unconscious in this session would seem to be condensation. Both the symbol of the
fishhook that emerges, the highly intense moment in the dialogue at which it emerges,
and the wealth of associations and ideas that can be drawn from it seem to be excellent
examples of one object standing for several associations or ideas.
My aims at the beginning of this chapter were as follows.
Methodologically, as in Chapter Six, the aim of this chapter was to conduct an
exploration of a set of phenomena, extracting a set of themes by an impressionistic
process, and then examining and transforming the material that can be generated from
those themes.
Substantively, in this chapter I aimed to make use of an understanding of the
unconscious phenomenon of condensation, with this understanding focussed on the
context and events of the episode, and to illustrate how those contexts and events can be
unpacked and rearranged, as in the psychoanalytic treatment of a dream. I have aimed to
17 In music, the bass line on which a keyboard player, accompanied by a bass stringed instrument, builds
up a harmonic accompaniment.