What am I seen – who do I seem? Hidden discursive processes in the large group of a TC

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to present a possible way of discourse analysis of the meaning giving processes in a therapeutic community (TC).Design/methodology/approachPresentation of a research project, which aim is to analyse the attitudes towards the large group within the TC, is based on analysing the conceptual metaphors in semi-structured interviews.FindingsThe findings delineate a possible discourse, namely, the TC’s hidden discourse of working through the mirror-transference at the community level.Practical implicationsThe paper proposes a possible content analysis method for better understanding the deep processes of the TC by examining the large group.Social implicationsThe paper emphasizes the matrix of a TC as a mentalizing scene.Originality/valueThe use of linguistic methods in understanding the hidden community level mentalizing processes.