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Chapter Two Part Two – Methodology - Page 49
To recapitulate from Chapter One, the thesis has two gaps to fill, so there are two tasks
to be completed. The first is to develop a means of investigation, or methodology, and
the second is to deploy that methodology in the study of a learning group. It is the task
of this second part of Chapter Two to construct and elaborate the methodology, and of
Chapter Three to translate the methodology into research methods.
Disciplinary strands from psychoanalysis, group-analysis and ethnography will be
outlined, and then formed into post-Foulkesian group-analytic ethnography.
Before doing this, though, it seems important to acknowledge that spelling out this
framework in this particular study poses significant challenges, for reasons that follow.
In a situation where, say, an ethnographer is setting out to study aspects of life in a
remote village on a distant continent, then it is perfectly possible for that ethnographer
to have a very different philosophical perspective to the people they will be living
amongst and whose lives they will be studying. An appropriate relationship of respect
and trust between the ethnographer and their informants will be essential to the success
of the study, but there may be minimal connection between parties outside of or even
within the study.
The situation in this study is very different to that. This study can be seen as involving a
range of allied practices. For example, the aspect of life that is a focus of this study is
the teaching and learning of the practice of psychotherapy, which is carried out in a
group setting. One part of this picture, the practice of psychotherapy, has a
philosophical basis, and this is espoused by the researcher as a clinician. The practice of
teaching (the practice of) psychotherapy also has a philosophical basis, and again, this
is espoused by the researcher, as a teacher. All of this work is undertaken by the