Supervising and crisis management of a public elementary school class

This study is based on a psychodynamic technique, the Mosaic Matrix Axis (MMA), which aims to promote the consolidation of the individual’s subjective self. This process is enabled by a specific psychodynamic sequence: the establishment of the individual’s primary repression; the differentiation of self and non-self; the dynamic bond between Ego and selfidentity. Acase of crisis intervention on an unmanageable class of latency age children is presented to illustrate the technique. The author conducted supervision on a novice female counselor who was in the fourth year of a Master’s course in clinical psychology. The dynamic phases which allowed to overcome the crisis were: (1) Showing the adult’s own presence to the children, so that the adult could catch the libido in each child’s body-Ego-identity and mold its limits; (2) By catching both the libido and the aggressiveness in the child, the adult could strengthen the child’s Ego function in a dialogue; (3) By creating an intergenerational Oedipal configuration, which was represented by group norm, the adult was able to place the child in the configuration. The basic strategy was formulated by the Theory of Equilibrium Fluctuations (Kotani) and aimed at managing the fluctuation of each child as a molecule element to govern the macro-fluctuation of a school as an organization and as a broader group.

Keywords: Mosaic matrix, primal repression, dynamic bond, Ego, presence, children’s group.

Nishikawa Masahiro, Supervisione e gestione della crisi in una classe elementare pubblica in "GRUPPI" 1/2010, pp 35-47, DOI: 10.3280/GRU2010-001004