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146 Chapter 6

behavior as appropriate if that behavior was rare and didn’t seem to reflect on them
personally. Women were uncomfortable with challenges to sexist remarks if those
remarks were rare—probably so as not to appear overly sensitive. You can see how
complex human behavior is in groups!

Fantasy Themes
A continuing theme of ours is that group cultures are socially constructed by the inter-
action among group members. We turn now to one of the most powerful ways in
Fantasy which group culture is created: through fantasy. Technically, fantasy refers to “the
A statement not creative and imaginative shared interpretation of events that fulfill members’ psycho-
pertaining to the here logical or rhetorical need to make sense of their experience and to anticipate their
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and now of the group future.” Fantasy, in this sense, does not mean fictitious or unreal. It means that
that offers a creative during certain periods of the group’s interaction, rather than discussing events hap-
and meaningful pening in the here and now of the group, the members are telling stories, relating past
interpretation of events, and sharing anecdotes that have a bearing at the unconscious level on the
events and meets a group’s process. In other words, group members rarely set out consciously to establish
group’s psychological the group’s culture. Instead, they just talk. Some of that talk, although appearing tan-
or rhetorical need.
gential to the group’s real task, in fact meets psychological and rhetorical needs of the
members and helps construct the group’s social reality.
When a group member says something not directly related to the present task of
the group, that member has introduced a fantasy. This happens often during a discus-
sion, with many fantasies going no further. However, sometimes group members pick
up on the fantasy introduced by one group member and elaborate on it. Several mem-
bers join the fantasy by adding their pieces to the story, in a kind of group storytelling,
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Fantasy Chain called a fantasy chain. During a fantasy chain the speed of the interaction typically
A series of picks up, voices become louder, and a sense of excitement can be detected. The mood
statements by is electric. A fantasy chain may last from as little as half a minute to as much as half
several or all group an hour. Eventually, the chain peters out, often when one member pulls the group
members in which a back on task. Fantasy chaining is a way members create shared images of the group
story is dramatized to and its environment. This storytelling activity plays a crucial role in structuration of a
help create a group’s group’s culture. 28
view of reality. Fantasy chains develop in a fairly predictable way. First, some form of ambigu-
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ity or uncertainty exists in the group. One member begins the fantasy by introducing
a core image that somehow relates to the uncertainty. Then, other members spread
that core image by adding their own elements to the fantasy, creating a group meta-
phor, rather than just an individual one. Finally, when the fantasy chain has ended,
the group members have converged on a particular picture of the group’s reality.
Fantasies are about something; the content of the fantasy is called the fantasy
Fantasy Theme theme. There is an obvious or manifest theme to the fantasy chain, and a latent, or
What the actual below-the-surface theme that, when examined, reveals the culture, values, and norms
content of a fantasy of the group. Often, fantasies have heroes and villains, plot lines, and a well-developed
or fantasy chain is ethical structure that gives moral or psychological guidance to a group. To interpret
about. the latent meaning of a fantasy, Bales suggests looking for a sudden insight rather
than trying to analyze the fantasy systematically.

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