18 октября 2024 года
Эта статья написана для сборника статей о групповой супервизии «Группа как среда для супервизии» № 3, который был издан под патронажем Института Супервизии и Групповой Терапии и Ассоциации Групповых Супервизоров. Перепубликация и ссылка только с указанием источника и автора текста.
THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN SEXUALITY AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE SUPERVION GROUP STABILITY.
Gruzdeva Mariya Anatolievna
M.Grebneva@gmail.comPsychoanalytic therapist of the French School of Psychoanalysis (Moscow Society of Psychoanalysts), clinical psychologist, accredited group supervisor in the group-analytic modality (IGA), group leader in group-analytic modality (candidate of the group section of the SPP), Full Member of the Association of Group Supervisors and the European Association for the Development of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, PhD student of the RSSU Department “Social, Political and Economic Psychology.”
INTRODUCTIONIt has been several years since I, a therapist of the French School of Psychoanalysis, started my first supervision group. Since then, I have been thinking about the place of instincts in the space of group supervision. There is the eternal riddle of the dichotomy of human nature, which solution lies in the field of thinking about the finiteness of life, offering mankind ways and opportunities to comprehend the meaning. In this article, I will lift the veil of secrecy over human sexual instincts and their impact on the supervision group stability. The point of departure of my reflections is the text of 1915 by S. Freud “Instincts and Their Vicissitudes”
So, instincts originate in the body, i.e. they have a bodily source and mental representations charged with a certain amount of libidinal (life-seeking) energy, which is represented as a set of mental phenomena – images, emotions, affects. Instincts have a goal – an object and are subordinated to the principle of pleasure, which is achieved by reducing tension (discharge) in order to avoid unpleasure.
The instincts are sexual in nature and extend to all areas of the subject's life. This determines their vicissitudes described by S. Freud as “the essential feature of the vicissitudes undergone by instincts lies in the subjection of the instinctual impulses to the influences of the three great polarities that dominate mental life. Of these three polarities we might describe that of activity–passivity as the biological, that of ego–external world as the real, and finally that of pleasure–unpleasure as the economic polarity" (
Freud S. Basic Psychological Theories in Psychoanalysis. An Essay on the History of Psychoanalysis: Collected papers. St. Petersburg, “Alethea", 1998. / Freud S. Instincts and Their Vicissitudes. pp 124-150). My further reflections on the influence of instincts on the supervision group stability will be based on the idea of the relationship between the intensity, place and causes of instincts, having, according to S. Freud, a sexual nature.
The sexual nature of the instincts arises and is experienced by the subject, due to his collision with the outside world at the inter-individual, group, intergroup and cultural levels. And then there is a reasonable question about how the social environment affects the development of the subject's instincts? The goal of instincts, according to Freud, is an object, i.e. something that is outside the bodily boundaries of the subject. Consequently the instincts of the subject are formed on and connected to the object that is located outside, thanks to the object that is located in the intrapsychic of the subject i.e. thanks to the mental representation of the primary object as a symbol of parental love.
In 1921 S. Freud wrote in his paper “Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego” that “in order to have a correct judgment about the morality of the masses, one must take into account that with the totality of individuals making up the mass (group), all individual delays disappear and, thus, all cruel, rude, destructive instincts that have hitherto been slumbering in man are awaken for the free satisfaction of instincts. But the masses are also capable, under the influence of suggestion, to the acts of the highest order: renunciation, selflessness, devotion to the ideal. For the individual, personal benefit is the engine of his desires, for the masses it does not come to the fore. Thus, we can say that the effect of the masses on the individual is “ennobling”. And then, “a person under the influence of neurosis, as well as under the influence of falling in love, acts destructively on the masses, and therefore we can see that where the tendency to form masses is strong, neurosis tames its effect" (Freud S. Introduction to Psychoanalysis. Collected papers. M., AST Publishing House, 2019. / Freud S. Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. 561 – 596 p.). Thus, we can say that society affects the individual's instincts by sending two, sometimes mutually exclusive, messages – at the same time encouraging sexual desires and contributing to inhibition.
At the border of the individual and the social, a game arises that forces the instinct to maneuver and adapt to its supporting framework. This frame is designed at the same time to protect the subject from more intense external influences and to help him retain sexual energy internally in order to transform it for subsequent use, either for transmission to the person to whom it is intended – the object, or for sublimation, that is, to redirect the energy of libido to solve various social problems. Thus, the instinct is able to change its objects relatively freely. This leads to another idea that in order for a participant in a supervision group to be able to study within its framework, he needs to learn to recognize and transform his sexual instincts at the boundary of the meeting of individual, group and sociocultural sexual, including sexual, arising in a session with a patient. This helps each member of the group to develop the ability of their instincts to change directions and objects freely. The boundary at which arousal occurs and opposite forces of instincts act, as the supervision group develops, becomes more flexible, and therefore able to retain and transform mobile instincts, which affects the stability of the group. Ultimately, the more freely the instincts can move within the boundaries of the supervision space and the more secure its boundaries are, the more capable the group is to creative development and the more pleasure its members receive in it. I will now proceed to describing the social aspects of sexuality and their impact on the supervision group stability.
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF SEXUALITYA monograph by J. Gagnon and W. Simon “Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality” (J. Gagnon, W. Simon, “Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality”, Chicago., 1973. – 167 p. - 69 p.) was published in 1973. It outlined new frameworks and parameters for the manifestation of sexuality in the social interaction of bodily and sensual experiences. It interrupted the tradition of interpreting sexuality mostly in a biological way. Thus, the concept of “sexual culture” appeared in the conceptual field of social sciences.
What is meant by the concept of “sexual culture”? These are all the varieties of social relations in the field of sexuality: values, attitudes, ideas, normative behavioral patters, everyday sexual practices and forms of sexual education that exist at three levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal (at the level of small groups) and cultural (at the level of society and large groups). This phenomenon was called “sexual scenario”.
The sexual scenario, according to J. Gagnon and W. Simon, allows human sexuality to take place. Sexual scenarios at the cultural level (the level of the entire society and large social groups) are the leading scenarios for other levels and serve as a guide to the life of individual sexual practices. The subject implements his own sexual scenario based on his individual understanding of them and guided by higher-level sexual scenarios.
The basis of a person's sexual culture, as an integral part of his identity and sexuality has changed significantly in Russian public opinion, having led to the modification of sexual scenarios as a result of the transformation of sexual morality and the concept of “norm” about the form of sexuality, as well as a review of the relationship between sexuality and the institution of marriage. What was banned yesterday is now open for research, discussion and implementation. The deformation of life landmarks and meanings due to the contradictions that arise between the concepts of sexuality inherent in the family and the norms and attitudes transmitted by the social consciousness have an impact on dynamic processes within small groups, since it is in them that the processing, comprehension and appropriation of subjective mental experience takes place. In a small group, it is impossible to conceal the instincts, it is for this reason that the pressure experienced by the group members can cause anxiety among them, i.e. the subject in the group is worried about what he places in it – his contradictory sexual instincts and related prohibitions.
Reflecting on the social origins of human sexuality, on sexual scenarios that arise at social levels, on the boundary at which “individual” and “social’ experiences of sexual experiences meet, on their interaction and mutual influence on each other, as well as on how instincts affect dynamic processes within small groups. One can draw the conclusion is that a reliable, and by this I mean, first of all, a flexible group framework allows each member, according to group rules, to reflect on their instincts and transform them, i.e. to give them a mental meaning. Understanding the phenomenon of a “reliable flexible boundary” helps the supervision group leader in understanding the dynamics.
“Individual” and “social” sexual are inscribed in the framework of the supervision group. D.W. Winnicott in the paper “Hate in the Countertransference” writes that an analyst should be able to withstand the tension associated with the inability of getting to know his patient quickly, just as a mother of a newly born child should love a child before she gets to know him for real (Winnicott, Donald Woods. Through Paediatrics to Psychoanalysis / D. W. Winnicott; translated from English by A. Bagryantseva. — 2nd ed., el., ispr.: 521 p. — Moscow: Institute of General Humanitarian Research, 2022. — (Theory and Practice of Psychoanalysis), 333-347 p.). Undoubtedly, this tension, which Winnicott writes about, is created by instincts. The therapist's ability to withstand it, to process it, these, as W. Bion writes, "difficult thoughts and feelings", and therefore, thereby creating a container for them, is the problem that is being investigated and resolved in the supervision group by transformation and transforming sexual instincts at the individual, group and social level, considered through the prism of a parallel process of a clinical case.
THE INFLUENCE OF SEXUAL INSTINCTS ON THE SUPERVISION GROUP STABILITY
Reflecting on the factors that affect the supervision group stability, it seems to me important to highlight the following:
- the personality of the Leader and his individual abilities to transform his own sexual instincts, as well as his talent to maintain authority, power and framework of the supervision group, to maintain group cohesion, i.e. everything that forms the basis of the “life-instinct” for each member of the group in his professional development,
- stability of the boundaries of the supervision group and the rules of the group supervision agreement are shared by all its members,
- group cohesion (the quality and strength of intra-group connections, which requires some effort, especially in online work),
- the instincts and desires, pleasure of joint professional research and development shared in the group.
I can say that all of the abovementioned factors affecting the sustainability of the group, in one way or another relate to the ability of the supervision group Leader to invest his instincts within the learning boundary. In order for a mother to be able to seduce her baby to life, it is important for her to live her life full of desires and pleasures, to want to be desired and happy next to her man. A mother who is able to fill her child with instincts has a mental apparatus equipped with an abundance of representations of instincts, love and tenderness, and which the mother invests her child with. It is the precondition for the development of his mental that they are limited in their impact, since pleasure, which has no boundaries, is destructive for the subject.
The supervision group Leader combines the abilities of a parental couple, including maternal and paternal and paired functions, where passivity, which is traditionally given to the female and activity, which is associated with the male, and all together with the sexual, allows within the supervision group to conceive, bear and give birth to a new (Other, that is, different from the one who joined the group) specialist, as a new life, which will be seduced by the Leader and the group, invested by the attraction to life, pleasure, curiosity about the profession and their development. This is a good illustration of the role of the supervision group in the development of a specialist, within whose boundaries several systems intersect and are mutually enriched by instincts: “Patient-Therapist”, “Leader-Therapist”, “Leader-Group”, “Group-Society”.
The presence of sufficient emotional life within the supervision group regarding the subject of supervision – a clinical case and a Leader who is able to help hold, bind and transform sexual instincts within its secure boundaries, where, according to Lang, it is important not only to make “efforts to preserve the framework, which in themselves are constructive, supportive and restraining means to create a favorable atmosphere for effective learning, stimulating growth, self-esteem and self-affirmation and, however, they always cause a certain degree of security, limiting anxiety” (Langs, Robert (1994), Doing Supervision and Being Supervised, Frames and Systems, London, 59-70, Karnak), but also to help establish fairly reliable connections within the group. The mutual pleasures of the supervision process are in the center of these connections. They are shared by all members of the supervision group, which helps them resist the destructive forces of the death-instinct, aimed at disconnecting and destroying harmony within the group.
So, we can say that a stable reliable frame, a Leader capable of passivity and activity, as well as fairly strong connections within the group, all together allow one to accept, hold, reflect, process and transform sexual instincts within the supervision group, directing them to professional training. A stable supervision group is a group that is capable of conceiving, bearing and giving birth to new professional experience and knowledge, as well as their transformation and appropriation.
conclusion
Our life is filled with instincts and desires. They and only they give us the strength and hope to love, dream, and create our lives. The purpose of the work of the supervision group is to create conditions for efficient training of a specialist. It is impossible to imagine this process outside of the instinctual life of each of its participants, since they (instincts) are the foundation forming the atmosphere for the pleasures of knowing oneself in the profession.
The creation of an environment for learning is the main task of the supervision group Leader and his individual abilities to transform instincts in this process play a decisive role and contribute to the formation of the group environment. It is the transformation of instincts within the boundaries of the group, rather than their discharge, that makes it possible to strengthen bonds within, which contributes to the development of group dynamics, and with it expands the space for professional growth of its members.
The purpose of writing this article was to show how instincts affect the group stability. A sustainable group is a group filled with longings for life, which is able to transform its longings within its boundaries and direct them to the professional development of each of its members. In such a group, all its members and the Leader also expand their professional field. The Leader transforms and fills all those instincts that its members face in the group with professional meaning. Thus, the member receives the most important thing – professional containment and support, which inspires him with hope that even in the most difficult client cases there is a ray of hope that the life-instinct, once again, will prevail over the death-instinct and what the therapist is going through in his office next to the patient is the triumph of the instincts and the victory of life over death.