Early experience, developmental tasks and the blossoming of the capacity to learn

Illustrations from one infant observation are used to discuss the early development of the capacity to learn and develop the mind. A description of the psychoanalytic theory of learning beginning with Freud and moving to Klein, Bion and Winnicott is the theoretical context for the illustrations. The paper moves on to discuss hypotheses about the baby’s mental and cognitive development. The baby and his mother are able, the author suggests, to work through a less than ideal start to their relationship and to learn together in a way that fosters creative learning from experience

New developments: training in the facilitation of work discussion groups

Invitations to provide training in the work discussion model and its facilitation led the authors to question how we learn to facilitate work discussion groups. The authors describe their experience of developing a pilot five day foundation course in Work Discussion Group facilitation with participants who were unfamiliar with the Work Discussion Group model. The paper describes the thinking behind the training, its central elements and the emphasis on learning from experience as student participants became familiar with being Work Discussion Group members, presenters and, later, to trying out the role of facilitator. The authors draw on their experience of running these training programmes, and of leading work discussion seminars themselves to illustrate how opportunities to take up the facilitation task, with support and consultation from the two course leaders, enabled participants to consolidate their understanding of work discussion itself as well as of the task of the facilitator. This task is particularly important in terms of containing the group and keeping it on task, while taking note of unconscious processes and powerful projections of anxiety and inadequacy which dominate in early presentations of oneself in a work interaction. Despite the authors’ reservations about what would be possible in such a course, especially given its brief nature and the limited experience of many participants, the outcomes indicate that the course had a powerful and transformational impact on many; some went on to introduce work discussion into their own work settings, and to research it

Les nombreux visages du Syndrome d’Asperger [The many faces of Asperger’s Syndrome]

Ce livre a pour objectif de présenter un récit pluridisciplinaire d’une approche psychodynamique du syndrome d’Asperger. Il propose une revue des théories psychiatriques et psychanalytiques utiles à sa compréhension, puis des études de cas détaillées illustrant l’expérience émotionnelle des patients, le processus thérapeutique et la grande variété de cas individuels qu’englobe ce syndrome. Il s’adresse aussi bien aux professionnels de la santé qu’aux enseignants et à quiconque s’intéresse à ce sujet