He also used W. R. Bion's account of how a group's basic assumptions could radiate "long silences, sighs of boredom, movements of discomfort...the hostility of the individuals was being contributed to the group anonymously". As his associate Joseph Berke put it, in such a nexus "a unique pattern of communication could be made out. People did not talk to each other, but at each other, and tangentially, not directly...what people said was often contradicted by the way they said it (tone of voice and/or facial and bodily movements)."