This book examines the Tavistock tradition of using group relations conferences as temporary training organisations for groups and institutions, and how those can inform and enrich the theory and practice of experiential learning more generally. It addresses the tension between psychoanalysis and systemic theory in group relations thinking, refining and re-defining key concepts of the practice, challenging notions of dependence and dependency, performative poetics, learning, the politics of power, nostalgia, and the unspoken reasons for the wish to join conference staff teams.
Key Features
- Analyses the structures, rituals, and beliefs of group relations conferences.
- Explores broader areas such as the social nature of corruption and the use of drawing in social science research.
- Critiques the polarity concerning spontaneity, openness to the unexpected, and trust in unconscious processes.
- Invites readers to challenge boundaries towards a less inflexible engagement with the Other.
- Utilises the metaphor of bricolage to inspire creativity and originality.
Additional Information
Drawing on the author’s learned experience in the field, this work will allow psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, group therapists, organisational consultants and trainers to gather new dimensions of group life that crucially affect our everyday living and surviving, both as individuals and as members of society.
