1) FREUD

Freud did not write much specifically about education, but some principles derived from Freudian psychology are used in education and training. He developed the idea that the individual was in conflict due to the demands made by different parts of the personality. These components of personality were the:

* Id:

a basic, instinctive force which expresses itself either as Eros, the love instinct, with an energy referred to as `libido', or as Thanatos, the destructive or death instinct.

* Superego:

a basic, instinctive force which is a drive towards the individual's ideal self. This super conscientiousness is equally as extreme as the id.

* Ego:

this part of the personality sits between instinctive forces of the superego and the id and tries to keep a balance.

Freud stated that a psychology of the group had to answer three questions:

1. What is a group?
2. How did it acquire the capacity for exercising such decisive influence over the mental life of the individual?
3. What is the nature of the mental changes which it forces upon the individual?

OTHER KEY CONCEPTS:

i) Introjection/Projection

To use Freud's terms - people `introject' a preferred person (a leader) or the qualities they like in that person, into their own being, while at the same time `projecting' some of the bad or painful qualities of themselves onto others. When each member of a group assimilates the same qualities of the leader, they can identify with each other. In the same way, a group can spend a lot of time and energy in projecting its own conflicts or inadequacies onto another group or an institution.

ii) Transference

Another Freudian concept which has relevance to groups is that of `transference' - a common phenomenon in which fears, loves and longings experienced in early childhood (usually in relation to parents and siblings) are re-awakened in later life when they are displaced onto another person (e.g. a participant rejects, resents or conversely respects to an unrealistic extent simply because the leader triggers the same feelings (usually subconsciously) as did one of the participant's parents.

KEY ISSUES:

i) Authority:

Whenever decisions have to be made about process or the allocation of tasks, a group is likely to experience authority problems. The leader's role would seem to be to aid the students' growth by refusing to join battle and to help them understand the consequences of their action.

ii) Responsibility;

There is a feeling in groups where visible authority is present that the ultimate responsibility for each person's action and its consequences resides in the figure of responsibility. The leader who is the incurable helper may fail to develop the student's capacity for self-growth into greater autonomy and harmony.

iii) Boundaries:

All groups have boundaries:time span, physical space, task and input.Evidence of the strength of subjective boundaries can be readily perceived if a stranger (e.g. new student/observer) is invited into the group.

iv) Organisational Structure:

The power relationships in the group, whether determined by outside factors (e.g. curriculum) or internal factors (e.g. skills of individuals) can have a profound effect on the work of a group. The recognition of this problem has led some group leaders to allocate special roles and responsibilities in a group on a rotating basis.

2) PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY: BION

Out of Freud's approach has developed one of the most powerful interpretations of group interaction (that commonly known as the `Tavistock Model'), which is relevant for understanding groups within education and training. Bion (1961) proposed that a group operates simultaneously at 2 levels:

a) The Work Group....meets to perform a specific and overt task.

However, this is frequently obstructed or diverted by the powerful emotional drives of the second `shadow' group that from time to time takes over. The shadow group may appear to be working on the task but it is actually governed by powerful yet unconscious forces arising out of fears for individual or group security. This is called the `basic assumption group' because its members behave `as if' certain things were true even though they are not.

b) The Basic Assumption Group......behaves as if it shared the following tacit assumptions or motives:

* DEPENDENCY:

obtaining security and protection from one individual on whom it can depend e.g. leader;

* FIGHT/FLIGHT:

preserving itself from annihilation - either attacking (fight - scapegoating some other person in the group in order to avoid a difficult problem) or avoiding the task (flight - takes the form of withdrawal, passivity, dwelling on the past or jesting)

* PAIRING:

two individuals form a bond in which warmth, closeness and affection are shown. i.e. assumption that the purpose of the group is to bring two people together who will somehow save the group from its current predicament. Frequently happens when the group is bored, lost or resentful. In learning groups, pairing can take 3 possible forms:

1. 2 participants provide mutual support for each other, to the exclusion of the rest of the group, who are thus rendered inactive;
2. 2 participants could engage in an intellectual battle, each partner representing a different side of a conflict that has been preoccupying the group;
3. the leader/tutor may pair with the group as a whole and collude with them in their which to avoid work. Often characterised by a sense of unreal hope.

The purpose of these `basic assumption' groups is to replace intolerable levels of uncertainty with something which seems more manageable. In groups which are less directed or less structured uncertainties will be present from time to time, and the less structured the activity the more likely it is that this will be so. Bion's ideas enable us to make sense of a response to uncertainty - initially subconscious - and it can happen at any time.

References:

Cotton, J. (1995)

The Theory of Learning: An Introduction, London, Kogan Page.

Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, F.P. (1987)

Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills, (3rd edition), New Jersey, Prentice-Hall International.

Pines, M. (1992)

Bion & Group Psychotherapy, London: Routledge.