Group Analytic Clinical Mind-lines: an interview study of the working theories of group analytic psychoterapist

The Introduction lays out the problem that this research project attempted to examine : the importance of the ‘therapist factors’ in therapy outcome, and the difficulty of ascertaining the working theories of Foulksian group analysts, which , it is suggested, are held in the group analyst ’s mind as implicit, pre - conscious , procedural or tacit knowledge. The concept of the clinical mind - line is then suggested as a useful way of describing and structuring the manner in which clinical working theories are held, reached, when required, and then used by the group - analyst. Chapter 1 reviews the relevant literature about the development, theory and practice of group psychotherapy. Chapter 2 reviews some relevant philosophical and psychological work about knowledge and theory. Chapter 3 describes the chosen methodology: interviews of experienced group - analysts, which were recorded, transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis. Chapter 4 lays out the findings from the interviews, giving a narrative account followed by the thematic analysis. Chapter 5 discusses these findings in detail in the light of the group psychotherapy literature and the concepts of tacit knowledge and the clinical mind - lines. It is suggested here that the two themes and four sub - themes that were revealed by the thematic analysis usefully formed a basis for a tentative formulation of the group - analytic clinical mind - lines as consisting in a mental structure of inter - connecting clusters and nodes. This structure enables the group - analyst, pre - consciously, to organise their tacit, implicit knowledge , and to integrate it into their conscious explicit knowledge, at any one moment-of-time-in-the-group, into a clinical decision and therapeutic action. The conclusion then describes the limitations, usefulness and possible future development of this study. There are, finally, two appendices, which provide an extract from a coded interview, and list of all the themes and codes from the thematic analysis.