Observers in analytic groups: A content analysis study from the participant perspective

Abstract

What perceptions do group participants have about silent observers, what transferences are involved, what function can the listeners have for the group? In an anonymous survey and evaluation based on content analysis, almost all participants reported positive, and two thirds also negative impressions and perceptions. Observers were perceived as being familiar or supportive and as threatening or constraining to an approximately equal extent. There was no outright demonization or perception of a divide between the group leader(s) and the observers, as described in the older literature. Group participants also appear to perceive observers as representatives of their own superego, which are ‘silenced’.