More than the sum of its parts?!

When we are with other people, we often find that there appear to be phenomena which influence an individual's behaviour within a group or the group as a whole. Since educational practice often, if not for the most part, takes place in groups, it stands to reason that we should examine the concept of groups within an educational context in greater detail. This research paper therefore focuses on the examination of group processes within psychoanalytic pedagogy, exploring in particular the significance of 'scenic understanding'. The aim of this thesis is, on the one hand, to characterise the psychoanalytical-pedagogical examination of groups in greater detail by means of a review of the relevant texts and, on the other hand, to demonstrate - against the background of the 'Empirical Circle' model of scientific analysis - the extent to which a scenic understanding of group phenomena is evident in the work of psychoanalytical-pedagogical authors.