Work discussion presentations at the Vienna Conference in June 2016: introduction to the presentations

ABSTRACT

The article includes two presentations prepared for discussion at the Vienna Conference on Work Discussion where a pre-conference afternoon was devoted to group discussion of 26 presentations in English or in German each facilitated by two experienced work discussion seminar leaders. The successful event was enthusiastically received by the participants who felt this encouraged everyone to think about the task of Work Discussion to allow direct experience of other styles and approaches to facilitation and to hear the thoughts of some new to Work Discussion and others with considerable experience.

KEYWORDS:

• work discussion
• projection
• psychoanalytic-perspective
• work task
• circles of containment
• finding meaning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Michael Rustin is Professor of Sociology at the University of East London, and a Visiting Professor at the Tavistock Clnic. His new book Researching the Unconscious: Principles of Psychoanalytic Method, will be published in 2019.

Margaret Rustin is a child, adolescent and adult psychotherapist. She teaches and supervises at the Tavistock in the UK, and in many other countries. Her most recent book is Reading Klein, jointly written with Michael Rustin.