ABSTRACT
The ideas presented in this chapter were stimulated by the Belgirate Conference held in 2003. The chapter seeks to explore the meaning and function of the Very Small Group, a group with 3–5 members, whose existence, in the author's experience, is frequently established by members of Group Relations conferences in the Institutional Event, which 'focuses on the conference as an institution with its beliefs and ideas on the exercise of authority'. It considers a hypothesis—that the 'system-in-the-mind' of the participants, a system of largely unconscious processes seeks and finds those with a particular valency to be part of this intimate grouping because of the need to connect and in order to provide a vehicle for some change at the boundary to take place. The chapter examines this hypothesis, making use of R. Gosling's and W. R. Bion's notions of 'container/contained'.
