ABSTRACT
The discovery from child analysis that the different and possibly conflicting emotional aspects of an experience may be represented by different people or different ‘characters’ is used in institutional consultancy as a guide for understanding group processes. In play, the child is the originator of the projections and the play-figures are the recipients. In an institution, the client group can be regarded as the originator of projections with the staff group as the recipients. The staff members may come to represent different, and possibly conflicting, emotional aspects of the psychological state of the client group. For example, in an adolescent unit the different and possibly conflicting needs of the adolescent may be projected into different staff members. One member may come to represent the adolescent’s need for independence while another may represent the need for limits. In an abortion clinic, one nurse may be in touch only with a mother’s mourning for her lost baby, while another may be in touch only with the mother’s relief. These projective processes serve the same purpose for the client as play does for the child: relief from the anxieties which can arise from trying to contain conflicting needs and conflicting emotions. It is hard to contain mourning and relief simultaneously, or to experience the wish for independence and the need for limits at the same time. The splitting and projection of these conflicting emotions into different members of the staff group is an inevitable part of institutional process.
