View/Open - Scholarly Commons Home

Chapter Two Part Two – Methodology - Page 75
mix at any moment of bi-valent logic (rational, conscious) and symmetrical (non-
rational, unconscious) logic. The more the latter intrudes and eventually comes to
dominate as one proceeds down through the strata, the more fluid and emotional things
become. This notion is extremely powerful in moment to moment understanding of
group process, and I have made it a core component of an heuristic for doing just that
which I go on to describe in Chapter Three, Research Methods and Their Use, on Page
104. It is also manifested in the notion of ‘Sticky Moments’, mentioned in the Preface
and discussed in Chapter Three, but about which I will say more in the next section.
Sticky Moments
As mentioned in a footnote to the Preface on Page xv, I have used this term borrowed
from the title of a television game show to indicate moments which are dense with
layers of meaning. Given the framework that has been articulated above, moments of
group interaction that are complex and layered will contain a series of different but
related meanings. Hence, at such moments it will almost certainly be apparent to all
participants but particularly to those responsible for facilitating the interaction that
multiple meanings are present. In choosing moments or episodes from the recordings of
the semester for analyses in Chapters Five to Nine, I looked for markers of such
moments, for example, parapraxes or mis-performances, eruptions of emotion or
humour, expressions of probable unconscious conflict, or awkward silences. The role of
the concept of Sticky Moments in the research methods of Post-Foulkesian Group-
Analytic Ethnography is discussed in Chapter Three on Page 99.
Linkings of Matte-Blanco’s work, and that of Foulkes
Rayner (1995) makes a range of links between Matte-Blanco’s work and that of other
theoreticians, but his list of these does not include Foulkes. Dalal (1998, 2001) has been