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Chapter Two Part One – Literature review - Page 47
In relation to the methodological question, there is a wealth of knowledge and skill in
both clinical psychoanalysis and in psychoanalytic anthropology, and increasingly these
have been brought together for research purposes. In particular, the experience of the
analyst/ethnographer, based on facility with transference and countertransference,
projection, projective identification and containment, can enable a particular form of
participant observation as well as the description, analysis and interpretation of
psychosocial experience. This collaboration has mostly been in relation to the study of
exotic cultures. I wish to turn the focus of this enquiry on to training for psychoanalytic
psychotherapy.
In relation to the substantive question, it is clear that there are large gaps in the
theorisation of the learning group, although there is accumulated practice wisdom,
particularly from allied practices such as aspects of the teaching and learning of infant
observation, as well as a range of methods and ideas that have been developed to meet
the challenge of creating an environment where clinical work experiences can be
explored, as in Balint-type groups. My aim, through this research, is to contribute
further to the filling of the remaining substantive gaps.