| Copyright 2002
Wilderness Drum, Inc.
All rights reserved Carrying Council in the Wilderness
Steve Beyer Community Building in Council Often, in a wilderness group, there are a series of councils – often one or two routine councils a day, along with special purpose councils throughout the trip. Anyone familiar with councils on a wilderness trip will recognize that the council process undergoes an evolution toward what will – one hopes – be a true community. Peck (1987, pp. 86-106) provides a very helpful model for the development of such community. In this model, community-making proceeds through four stages – pseudocommunity, chaos, emptiness, and community. - Pseudocommunity A group seeking to form a community often begins by faking it. They are extremely pleasant and avoid all disagreement. Individual differences are denied; the members act as if – pretend that – they all have the same beliefs and histories. People speak in generalities rather than specifics. Here, too, in council, we find what we can call pseudodisclosures – apparent self-disclosures that in fact reveal little, take no risks, require little courage.
- Chaos Pseudocommunity quickly turns into chaos as individual differences force themselves to the surface and people attempt to heal and convert others. Participants seek to have their own viewpoints or beliefs or projects or solutions prevail, and they perceive disagreement as intransigence. The struggle goes nowhere; it is merely noisy, uncreative, and unconstructive. This stage is often perceived as a deterioration from the smooth surface of pseudocommunity, and group members blame each other and, of course, the facilitator.
- Emptiness When the group is exhausted by chaos, the participants can begin the process of emptying themselves of the feelings, assumptions, ideas, and motives that have hindered their communication. A few participants begin to share their vulnerabilities – their defeats, failures, doubts, fears, inadequacies – but may retreat quickly when others attempt to heal and convert them. But it is too late to continue to deny individual differences; slowly, members of a group on the way to true community give up their pretensions, assumptions, expectations.
- Community Finally, the participants accept their vulnerabilities and their differences. People begin to speak – and listen – from the heart. The group task – whatever it may be – is approached in a new way, cooperatively rather than competitively.
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