ABSTRACT
Despite its rather prosaic and literal nomenclature, work discussion as a component of professional education and practice has flourished in varied contexts since it began to figure as a systematic element in advanced training courses in the midand late 1960s. This chapter attempts to elucidate where the concept came from and discusses its significance. Interest in the relevance of unconscious factors in understanding the nature of work has gained considerable currency in the last six decades. Seminal books such as The Unconscious At Work have popularized the idea of omnipresent beneath-the-surface phenomena that have to be studied if the explicit aims of any work practice are to be achieved. The Tavistock Clinic and Institute housed some very original thinkers in the post-war period, and some of their ideas were vital to the generation of work discussion methodology. Some recent research into Tavistock history by Sebastian Kraemer has also drawn attention to another source for study group and work discussion methodology.
