ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors describe the context and origins of their study; their first working hypotheses. They explain the development of their study methods and their experiences with them; their general findings. The authors explore how these findings led us to hypotheses about the dynamics of initial interviews that were in some ways very different from the ones we started out with. Generating hypotheses about potentially meaningful patterns grounded in observation is one of the traditional aims of both psychoanalytic and qualitative research. Qualitative research strategies are designed to discover and conceptualize such dynamic patterns and may thus provide inspiration for appropriate research methods adaptable to their field. This psychoanalytic group work is different from the 'focus groups' used in sociological qualitative research. The core Working Party on Initiating Psychoanalysis Team was composed of eleven psychoanalysts from different countries and psychoanalytical backgrounds.
