In this situation I might describe any behaviour that's challenging the boundary as 'subversive' - that is it's attempting to undermine the protective boundaries that have been established (and which I think are necessary). And, at that moment, I might not be able to see it as anything other than threatening - in which case I might attempt to 'correct' it... In which case it'll return because we haven't been able to receive it.
So, until I try to relate to it rather than correct it (or ignore it) I'm going to have trouble with it. (I'm trying to think of how I am rather than how you are, Ada, and hope that there's some connection). Yes, it might need the group to explore and celebrate the spirit of subversiveness - but it might not! When I think of it as a
metaskill I think of playfulness and a mischievous quality, something of the fool and the clown. But I'm also with the possibility that there is something very painful and angry that's in the subversion - that the 'subversive' behaviour is itself a form of protection from 'parts that are still too scary to relate to'....
And I wonder if that's what's there with your group? That there's 'something scary here...' (But, I don't know your work, you might already have named the scary things and this hasn't worked). I guess if someone is being subversive they might not even be able to relate to the idea that there's anything scary (and thus be subverting themselves). In which using subversion as a metaskill might involve playfully denying that there's anything scary... and I now get an image of a group that has parts which are frozen in fear...
Can I leave those thoughts/dreams there? Again this is helping me to think through how I work in groups and that's helpful - I hope it's useful to others too...
love
Franc
on 13/11/02 7:26 am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi all,
Thanks so much for responding with your great thoughts and ideas to the question around 'the subversive element'. I'm back from my trip and my jetlag and I appreciate your patience in waiting for my reply.
I'll do my best to answer and discuss with you all your questions knowing, at best, I'll probably not cover it all, and at worst, I'll misinterpret.
Franc, your question about what the element wants to bring in. When I'm able to value and or give this voice the benefit of a doubt, I think it wants to give feedback to the group that for whatever reason has not yet been given and or received. If this is the case, the manner in which the feedback is brought in needs to be addressed as the subversive double signal belies the intention of feedback; because by definition, feedback,(negative or positive), is supportive and sustaining to whomever it is being offered.
My experience with this element being a ghost role is an interesting one. I find that when I feel undermining in the atmosphere and it hasn't yet been named/picked up as a role, it's less scary. It's then on all of us to own a part of it and work on ourselves around it. Then I can feel a spirit of solidarity around accountability for whatever is in the field. But when subversiveness is consistently being brought in by one or two people, and all interventions to work with it, ie, role theory, have been exhausted, ( which is when I,personally, would name it as subversive), then I start to feel protective of the group and it's cause. Additionally, I feel hopeless as to how to intervene from this point; hence my question.
The question about explicit naming and implicit labelling is a good one as it make me think about what might happen if subversiveness was named as a spirit in the group, and then using it somehow creatively. You talked about having fun at learning and treating people as more than a role. Hmmm. Perhaps something like the essence of subversiveness being used as a metaskill for the group to learn more about itself, and how it protects itself from the "not we" of the group. I think about the nature of unconsciousness, and how I as an individual sometimes need the awareness of the subversive element to wake up to how I protect myself from the parts of me that are still too scary to relate to.
Any thoughts?
Ada
