Back to the rough ground: From predictability to radical uncertainty. (September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dalal, Farhad
• Is Part Of: Group analysis. Volume 51:Number 3(2018:Sep.)
• Page Start: 315
• Page End: 333
• Publication Date: 2018-09
• Subjects: politics of psychotherapy -- science -- psychoanalysis -- group Analysis -- research -- technique; Group psychoanalysis -- Periodicals; 616.8917
• DOI: 10.1177/0533316418779855
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0533-3164

Abstract

In this article I will begin by thinking about how schools of psychotherapy come to be created, and argue that this is a political process rather than a 'scientific', technical or rational one. I describe ways in which practice can at times be unhelpfully rigidified into techniques which are used to build borders between schools. I follow this by a description of how Eliasian gossip is used to reinforce methodological silos. Finally I consider group analysis' relationship to psychoanalysis, science and the medical model in order to try to shed light on the question 'one group analysis or many?'.