Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

132 Group-Analytic Society International - Contexts
strong feelings particularly in relation to ‘protection’ and
‘normality’?’
The Visitors observed that belief systems were often
developed in reaction to the perceived limitations of their forebears –
only to become mutually reinforcing with adherents quoting each
other in their writings - and wondered whether practitioners became
less able to adapt to the nuances of their clients in their eagerness to
practice their faith. ‘Were words sounds which gathered meaning in
relation to a listener? When conversations were unable to be
sustained, did meaning lapse?’ It was always going to be difficult to
explain concepts developed clinically to strangers, but these strangers
were unnervingly proactive students. Trying to provide coherent
replies was made more difficult by the frequent interruptions in the
unfamiliar and often turbulent settings.
The Visitors puzzled over terminology used by apparently
self-reflective psychotherapists that appeared designed to protect them
from anxieties provoked by interactions. They noticed when
assertions were made with the same bodily inflections as ‘sin’ and
‘faith’ by those with a different set of beliefs. ‘Did psychotherapy
encourage conformity? Was uncertainty intolerable? Was an
‘interpretation’ ever correct? How often did ‘difficulties with
authority’ become a phrase which disguised an organization’s
difficulty with creativity and change? Was the external location of
knowledge a way of not giving credence to a variety of internal
conversations in perpetual interaction with current experience?
Could polarities be allowed to exist simultaneously? Did the
complexity of the struggle to understand the boundaries of bodies,
feelings, thoughts and impulses lead to the somewhat artificial
creation of fixed points – as if by defining reality in relation to these
boundaries, truth might become apparent? Might ‘being alongside’
require tolerating the absence of fixed points and therein the
difficulties involved in articulating fluidity? Were reflective
conversations maintained with divergent ways of thinking’ Sometimes,
in the chaotic interactions within the large group, it seemed as though
allegiance to current authority became linked to the destruction of the
planet – as well as an ever-extending list of social ills – and it became
an impossible battle to explain benevolent motivation or practice
whilst retaining loyalty to a national or professional identity.
The therapist, who had tried to explain boundaries to the
Visitors whilst being stared at, wondered about the chaotic range of
feelings that she had experienced since she’d first met the Visitors in
the psychiatric hospital. She noticed that initially the Visitors listened