Collaboration in Small Groups: Theory and Technique for the Study of Small-Group Processes

Abstract

The authors consider the necessary conditions for group members and their consultants to study group processes together. They consider how the collaborative working relationship is achieved in other social fields, in the psychoanalytic "therapeutic alliance, " in the seminars of Balint (1954) for general practitioners and in the educational-political work of Freire (1970). They discuss the phenomena of noncollaborative small study groups (Bion, 1961) and how these might be understood in depth-psychological and social-political terms: as the consequence of errors of abandonment and intrusion, and as continuations of average social oppression. They illustrate both the success and failure of neophyte consultants in securing collaboration in these terms, and, finally, summarize what they consider to be essential: How consultants pass tests of the meaning and strength of their collabora-tive intentions.