ABSTRACT
In the workshop's brief time span, irrational, unformulated, partially unformulated, and symbolized themes regarding genesis, growth, parenting, family, sexuality, and competition were expressed and further developed. Birth motifs were presaged by the workshop's title: "Formulating the Unformulated". Perhaps the most difficult, and saddest, aspect of the leader's job is to separate sufficiently from this neonatal group to become its leader. While the group struggles with babyhood, to maintain connection and to feel secure, the leader struggles with parenthood, to separate and to feel adequate. Group members feel intersubjective tensions that arise from differences in beliefs about how their group should function, and at times they rebel against the group process. In rebellion, unlike resistance, the ideas and feelings that are expressed, and the behaviors that are planned or enacted, are not to be considered primarily as psychological phenomena, with non-conscious levels of meaning, to be brought into conscious awareness and appreciated for their symbolism.
