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The processes that take place in the life of any group, large or small, that is organized along the lines of any type of scheme, agreement and connection have a massive direct impact on the unconscious inner world of each of us, and the unconscious interaction between all of us. When asked to intervene within an organization, a consultant, whose function invariably entails representing the group's tasks and development, is expected to provide answers and solutions to problems and difficulties that the system cannot tolerate. Frequently, that same consultant is not the one who provides the answers, but rather the one who asks the questions, questions which almost always have a bearing on the essence, identity, being and mode of action of the organization.
“Investigation and questioning is related to very primitive phantasies about the contents of the ‘mother body’. What is there inside the container that we form by our being together as a group? Was is projected and introjected in the process of being a group? The attempt to make a rational investigation of any group is therefore perturbed by fears, and the mechanisms of dealing with them, that are characteristic of the paranoid-schizoid position.” (Bion, 1961, p. 162).
I have this knowledge whenever I think about groups. But I always seem to forget it, so that an ongoing process will be reborn with each encounter with a group. During this time of forgetfulness, until one remembers, or in fact reconstructs and rediscovers this “knowledge”, the consultant and the group go through an unsettling period, during which they are deluged by highly charged and overwhelming persecutory experiences. These are accompanied by feelings of