Observer un groupe: Motifs, intérêts et observables

Abstract

This article proposes a series of reflections on the situation of observing a group in clinical psychoanalysis. After explaining the interest of, and motives for, the presence of an observer, his place in the observation and the effects produced on the activity of the group, as well as on the observation itself, are discussed. Different fields of observables are then highlighted : verbal expression is distinguished from the group dynamic and from bodily and behavioural dimensions ; the observer's physical activity, moreover, is introduced as an observational finding as an extension to the consideration and analysis of the countertransference. The place of the observer's subjectivity, the value of the resultant observation with regard to the persons who are being observed, and its optimal objectivity, are then examined.