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Chapter Eight – A Consulting Break - Page 257
clinical work. Indeed, challenges of this pattern were the focus of discussion by the
students the previous Session (Session Ten). Set against this is the risk of responding in
a concrete way to a demand raised on behalf of, but not expressed by, the students, in
this case experienced by the group facilitator concerned, representing the group as a
group-as-a-whole.
Put differently, the group seem somehow to have induced their conductor to ask on their
behalf whether they can be provided with sandwiches. It may be that the Reflective
Group conductor responds in this way to anxiety, which will be, at least in part,
indicative of anxiety experienced with varying degrees of awareness by the student
members of the group. The issue represents a conflict, arguably a conflict for the course
organisers and presenters, for parents in childhood, and for teachers in general, between
responsive and attentive care on the one hand, and optimal frustration on the other.
Hence, the appearance of the demand can be seen as akin to a psychoneurotic symptom
in an individual, signifying a conflict that cannot as yet be expressed and resolved
directly.
The text on Pages 249, 250 and 251 begins an exploration of experience between Judi
and Bill, which runs over several more pages almost to the end of the break. Judi
disagrees fundamentally with the provision of sandwiches, not wanting there to be
consideration of the idea let alone the provision of the food. Bill responds firmly but
unclearly on Pages 249 and 250, perhaps reflecting the ambiguity in Judi’s condensation
onto ‘The Sandwiches’. Bill seems to be determined to not pick up Judi’s anxiety or
urgency, and doesn’t appear to do what is probably necessary here. His ‘you probably
weren’t …’ in the middle of Page 249 seems evasive. He seems defensive, although he
acknowledges that he has yet to act (or perhaps that he has failed to act) on the decision