Book Review: The Art and Science of Working Together

The Art and Science of Working Together: Practising Group Analysis in Teams and Organisations
Edited by Christine Thornton
(The New International Library of Group Analysis, Routledge, 2019)

When Christine Thornton (CT) emailed me in the summer 2019 and asked me whether I’d review her latest book for Contexts, I was flattered, and immediately said yes. Having devoured Group and Team Coaching, The Secret Life of Groups I figured it would be a pleasure.

I’ll kick off by heartily recommending The Art and Science of Working Together. It is a wonderful meze of narratives about working with the unconscious in organisational life, written by experienced and seasoned practitioners, including Christine herself, who has curated the contributions.

So I have been reflecting on my emotional reactions during the time I’ve been reading The Art and Science. First of all, there was my writers’ block, which started in June 19th, and indeed as I write this, it is nearly Halloween.  As you may have experienced, if we can’t write, then something about the subject or perhaps the context for the subject is usually still unresolved. So why would reviewing CT’s book leave me stuck somewhere back in the anal stage?  Maybe it’s because Christine is a bit of a role model for me. Like me, she has a background in Organisational Development, and she likes working on the bridge between change management and psychoanalysis. Christine is a qualified and experienced Group Analyst, whereas I am still schlepping my way towards BACP accreditation. So Christine has been doing this for a long time and she makes really difficult concepts sound easy and practical, whereas I am still having to read papers 3 times and go for a lie-down.

When I emailed Christine to say I couldn’t write her book review, I received a prompt, clear and helpful response: “You are, Sarah, a competent practitioner, stop doubting yourself and get your finger out.”  Then, a few weeks later, when the publication of The Art and Science was launched at the Freud Museum, and I (still suffering writers’ block, and not having written a single word) had snuck in late to stand at the back, all I could see was a crowd of demi-gods. Group Analysts and other clinicians and practitioners whose writing and teaching continues to inspire and educate me (and often make me to want to take a little lie-down).

So I am acknowledging that to review The Art and Science has felt a bit like being made to sit on the potty while my elders and betters are exhorting me to do my best!  You see, the book is a Smorgasbord of contributions. It is a feast of papers, all in one place, which takes the reader on a roller coaster of a ride through what it’s like to work with organisations as political systems that are basically powered by the unconscious dramas of the people who work in them. And the analyses made by the so-experienced authors and practitioners who have contributed offer fascinating perspectives.

I will end by sharing how these fascinating insights were also communicated to me through what was not written down. Put simply when I had read some of the papers in The Art and Science, I felt very stirred up, and indeed a short poem sort of flowed unbidden from my pen. Not a very good poem, I would say, but interesting nevertheless:

Do you use a condom?
Have you ever checked the size?
It’s printed on the rubber
In small letters down the side.

Big Large Huge Yeah
Condoms for all-comers
Big Large Huge Yeah
Condoms in all colours!

Have you stretched a condom
To its absolute extreme?
It makes the sizing legible
For anyone to read.

Big Large Huge Yeah
Condoms for all-comers
Big Large Huge Yeah
Condoms in all colours!

Now of course the reactions described in this piece are entirely my own, but what on earth had hooked me? I think it was possibly the covert concern in many of the papers that a lot of organisations with which the authors had worked were led by people with, shall we say, limited psychological understanding, who maybe might find themselves somewhere towards the far end of the narcissism scale. Now of course no one would actually write this as it would be like ringing the death knell for this type of OD work, but somewhere in my deep mind, the memo was received, filtered through my own biases and regurgitated.

So in reviewing this book, I must also own that it connected both with my fascination about the art and science of this work, and with my often negative feelings about doing it: my own anti-authority stuff, my own concern to not tacitly support controlling organisational cultures or inadvertently empower narcissistic leaders.  So Dear Reader, this is indeed a wonderfully curated book of wisdom and stories, but I think it also contains some strong messages. You may connect with different messages to me, depending on your own stuff – but you will, I promise, be affected by this book.Now of course the reactions described in this piece are entirely my own, but what on earth had hooked me? I think it was possibly the covert concern in many of the papers that a lot of organisations with which the authors had worked were led by people with, shall we say, limited psychological understanding, who maybe might find themselves somewhere towards the far end of the narcissism scale. Now of course no one would actually write this as it would be like ringing the death knell for this type of OD work, but somewhere in my deep mind, the memo was received, filtered through my own biases and regurgitated.

Sarah Hanchet
Coaching, Group Work, Therapy, Writing
Thewisdomisintheroom@gmail.com