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Chapter Ten – Summary and Conclusions – Page 304
practice of psychoanalysis as noted above, one which has continued to develop its
importance in contemporary theory and practice, but given the presence of a broader,
and importantly, available social context, this feature can be accessed and extended
much more directly in a group rather than in an individual context. However, the
introduction of the notion of dynamic administration also requires that this topic is
considered in the planning and delivery of group-based teaching and learning such as
this. The apparent neglect of the group perspective by the staff in this research (which
includes the researcher) is almost certainly typical of many such situations, but if a
formal acknowledgement is made of the importance of this perspective, then such
apparent neglect will become more obvious and will require demand consideration.
The group as a reflective self
One powerful thread through the theoretical basis of psychotherapy is that of attachment
theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980; Holmes, 1997). If the impact of psychoanalytic
psychotherapy is to enable the rearrangement of the internal world, or in other words
object relationships, under the cover of the transference, then the capacity for this to
happen is in no small part a result of the particular form of attachment that is a good
therapeutic alliance.
Fonagy (2001) has described the importance for an infant to discover him or herself as
comprehensible in the mind of another, and in Chapter Two Part One I outlined the
recognition of the importance of this potential to the development of the sense of a
coherent self in a child.
Therapy of a certain kind works because participants are enabled to experience a
particular kind of intimate relationship different to that which they characteristically