Covert Processes at Work

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Foreword

The existence of covert processes has been known for a long time. Whether we called them hidden agendas, unconscious desires, the elephant under-the-table, latent functions, or shared tacit assumptions, we knew they were there but rarely had a clear idea what to do about them.

For the therapist, the challenge has typically been how to bring the covert to the surface in a helpful way. For the group therapist or team leader, the complication was how to make members aware that they not only carried individual hidden agendas but also that the group itself evolved covert assumptions that guided and constrained its behavior to an unknown degree. For the negotiator or diplomat, the existence of covert intentions was taken for granted as ...