The Invisible Revealed: Collusion As an Entry to the Group Unconscious

The Invisible Revealed: Collusion as an Entry to the Group Unconscious Gianpiero Petriglieri and Jack Denfeld Wood Abstract earlier experience and all-too-familiar “dys- In group consultation, as in therapy, a functional” patterns of behavior. Whichever shared awareness of projective processes is our formal role in a group—as consultant or helpful to both consultant and client. If left member—we inevitably experience the constel- unaware, the flow of material can submerge lation of our unconscious complexes. All of us both. The consultant risks colluding with the can get “hooked” and “lose it” and regress to group by adopting their projections and then previous behaviors. We subsequently feel em- either withdrawing or acting out. When such barrassed or guilty and berate ourselves that we situations are “exposed,” they are usually “should have known” or “should have managed considered to be either professional embar- better” or “should have kept things under con- rassments or evidence of professional incom- trol.” petence. Yet careful investigation of the ex- Behavioral professionals are constantly perience of collusion can lead to a deeper warned by their teachers, supervisors, and col- understanding of the covert and unconscious leagues about the risk of losing their “objec- elements of working with a group. tive” and “unbiased” perspective—of “going ______ native,” of having their “buttons pushed” and being “hooked” into their clients’ games, of Had we been a bit braver, we would have “falling out of role,” and so on. If this is a risk titled this article “The Importance of Collusion: when working with an individual client, it is Working with the Impulse to Withdraw and Act even more of a risk when working with a Out in Group Consultation.” Our aim is to ex- group, the gravity of whose psychological pull plore how consultants who find themselves col- is considerably stronger and much more multi- luding with their groups—and deploying de- dimensional. We are suggesting here, however, fensive behaviors such as withdrawal or acting that there is something to be said for allowing out—can profitably use those experiences as a oneself to be drawn into the emotional field of diagnostic instrument that can lead to a deeper a group—if it is done responsibly. working understanding of the unconscious di- The professional literature on group consul- mensions of the group’s life. We use the word tation does not generally support this view. “consultant” here to represent the behavioral Consider, for example, the subject of transfer- professional who works with a client group to ence and countertransference. Freud first men- foster its development or that of its members. tioned transference in 1895 in writing on the This broad definition includes educators, group psychotherapy of hysteria (Freud, 1895/1955, psychotherapists, organizational consultants, pp. 301-303). At their first meeting in 1907, project leaders, or organizational change Jung told Freud that the “transference” was the agents. Regardless of our training, beliefs, or “alpha and omega” of the psychoanalytic meth- preferred methods, none of us in such a role is od, and Freud replied, “Then you have grasped immune to the phenomena described in this the main thing” (Jung, 1946/1966, p. 172). At article. that point, the concept was not original. Trans- ference was just “a reincarnation of what had The Limits of Control been known for a century as rapport [to hypno- Groups provoke the best and the worst in all tists]. Freud’s innovation lay not in intro- of us. They provide the ideal terrain for touching ducing the notions of resistence and transfer- sensitive spots, which can lead to regression to ence, but in the idea of analysing them as a 332 Transactional Analysis Journal THE INVISIBLE REVEALED: COLLUSION AS AN ENTRY TO THE GROUP UNCONSCIOUS basic tool of therapy” (Ellenberger, 1970, p. called in to repair a boiler (Berne, 1963) and 490). Psychodynamic theory and transactional the skilled surgeon performing “crisp” analysis agree that transference provides an interventions (Berne, 1966/1994). The surgical important learning opportunity for client and analogy was first employed by Freud consultant. Berne (1961/1975, p. 116) rec- (1895/1955, p. 305) to describe cathartic ognized the importance of transference in in- psychotherapy. Group consultation is neither dividual treatment and as a normal phenome- plumbing nor surgery, however, and no non in any group, occurring as it does toward one—regardless of his or her level of the therapist and between members (Berne, knowledge and skills or formal role—can enter 1966/1994, p. 154). More recently, transac- a group and be unaffected by its dynamics, tional analysis has been enriched by a more maintain a detached self-control, identify nuanced portrayal of transference and its place collective dysfunction, intervene with surgical in treatment (Clarkson, 1991a, 1991b; Moiso, precision, and establish control of the group. A 1985). surgeon makes contact with the physical body Countertransference—the projection of the of an anesthetized patient through latex gloves consultant’s internal psychic elements onto the and stainless steel blades. A consultant makes client group—is often viewed with some contact with the complexity of a group through ambivalence. Even authors who find it useful a largely irrational matrix of conscious and as a diagnostic instrument if it relates to the unconscious individual and collective client’s transference consider it problematic if psychological factors—thoughts, feelings, and it originates from the psychic tensions of the images. Consultants cannot avoid getting their consultant (Clarkson, 1991a; Novellino, 1984; hands dirty. To pretend they can restricts their Rycroft, 1983). For example, Reichard, potential effectiveness unnecessarily. Siewers, and Rodenhauser (1992) argued that The aim of control is a reassuringly in training groups counterproductive one. Most of us swing [countertransference] arouses the trainer’s between trying harder to establish and maintain own repressed impulses which further control and falling helplessly short of it. While complicates the interaction, turning a this may reflect a natural tension, it is the learning opportunity into a damaged consultant’s job to understand what is professional relationship, and interfering happening. It is not simply self-indulgent to with the participant’s right to learn. ask, “What evoked that particular piece of my Once into such a situation, however, a self- past experience?” Nor is it enough to say, aware and knowledgeable trainer will “There I go again.” It is essential to ask why begin to analyze his own feelings, in order one “lost it” at this particular time, at this to take control of the situation. (p. 23, particular place, with this particular italics added) configuration of people. One’s Adult is a Berne (1966/1994) implied much the same helpful ego state from which to operate, but it thing—that control is the aim toward which is equally essential for the Adult to have a good group consultants should orient their working relationship with the Parent and Child. efforts—when he wrote that “group dynamics It is also helpful to see from which ego state the is the special branch of science requiring most fundamental need for control originates. serious study in order to attain the degree of It makes a difference. And while it is understanding necessary for effective unrealistic to expect that one can suspend self- leadership and control of a therapy group” (p. judgment, it is unfortunate if one is 21). immobilized by it. Parent control, Adult One might say that the whole of Berne’s control, and Child control are not the same. If theory and methodology for understanding and one can attenuate the adverse effects of critical working with groups is a brilliant form of self-judgment, then one can pose questions “intuitive engineering.” He described his work such as: “What was it in this group at this time with groups using two metaphors: the engineer led me to act irrationally?” The question and a Vol. 33, No. 4, October 2003 333 GIANPIERO PETRIGLIERI AND JACK DENFELD WOOD provisional answer can provide clues to under- The wish to be relieved of a secret—without standing what the group is up to right now. becoming fully conscious of what it is—derives Whenever we are lost, confused, disappointed, from the intuition that the secret is at odds with or ashamed of what we have just done or felt, a group’s desired self-image, its collective per- it is helpful to pause and reflect. Guilt can be a sona. As with individual psychotherapy, any useful catalyst for curiosity, which can lead in developmental opportunity for a group presents turn to beneficial insight. Gut feelings and irra- a threat to its current identity, provokes initial tional reactions provide us with information not resistance, and constellates a defensive struc- only about ourselves, but also about the covert ture. When consultants enter a group, its pre- and unconscious dynamics of a group—dynam- disposition—marked by the wish for a solution ics that “dispassionate” observation usually and an avoidance of discomfort—will imme- misses. diately be attributed to them. The more the consultants want to be “good” and responsive, the Secrets and Solutions more they will be tempted to take charge of the Phillips (1995) tells us that “people come for problematic secret. As a result, their behavior psychoanalysis—or choose someone to have a and subjective experience will either begin to conversation with—when they find that they resemble that of the client group or appear as can no longer keep a secret. What was once its polar opposite. Racker (1968/1982) used the private has become, in spite of oneself, unbear- terms “concordant” and “complementary” to able; has become a means of recruitment, a describe these two alternative types of counter- message” (p.

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