PCCA / Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities: EUROPEAN VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS NOW AND THEN An Experiential Working Conference in the Series “The Past in the Present” August 27 – September 1 2014 Kliczków Castle, Poland CONFERENCE BROCHURE Sponsoring Organizations: German Psychoanalytic Association (DPV) German Psychoanalytic Society (DPG) Israel Psychoanalytic Society (IPS) International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) OFEK – The Israel Association for the Study of Group and Organizational Processes Polish Psychoanalytical Society (PPS) The Tavistock Institute (TI) Introduction Europe today is undergoing severe crises, seriously affecting European national identity, economic security and financial stability. The dream of a unified peaceful Europe appears to be receding and increasingly threatened. Yet the present instability and strife are rooted in Europes past and its painful history. This conference aims to uncover the present impact of these historical traumas. The shadows and painful residues of World War II deeply affect people and nations across Europe and elsewhere. The injuries inflicted by Europe’s shared history derive from the traumas of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Soviet Communism and national oppression, and the impact of ethnic tensions, leading to the recent rise of Neo-Nazism, xenophobia and terror. The pain and suffering fed by the horrors of war, occupation, massacres and betrayals are all alive, even if hidden, in individuals and subgroups. Religious, ethnic and racial intolerance, as well as accelerating economic hardship and cultural imperialism continue to give rise to aggression and victimization. The impact of this anguish is constantly transmitted from one generation to the next. It shapes contemporary struggles within European society, and its impact and fallout reaches far beyond European borders. Major atrocities and other forms of historical trauma can produce profound and deeply lodged suspicion, hostility and enmity between victims and perpetrators. In turn, these ill feelings are transmitted and infiltrate the lives of their descendants. They permeate the relationship between the groups involved, laying the foundation for perpetual hostility and repeated conflict. The burden of both victimhood and perpetration, and perhaps no less of being a bystander, often exercise their destructive influence outside our awareness, and we can find ourselves puzzled, confused and upset by their impact on our lives. This residential conference aims to allow participants to work on experiences and residues of such traumas, whether as victims, perpetrators or bystanders. It is designed for people who are puzzled by and curious about their history and wish to know more about its impact on their personal lives, on the groups they belong to, and on the local, national and international attitudes that are shaped by and reflect these dynamics. Often these are met in the form of overt or covert prejudices, stereotypes, fantasies and fears. Away from the pressures of everyday life, the conference provides a safe setting for such forces to emerge, and opportunities to explore how they may be understood. It is also an opportunity to discover whether genuine movement in the real, lived relationships between members of such groups may be possible. Background This conference continues the exploration of the residual effects and aftermath of horrendous atrocities on the national groups that perpetrated them or were their victims. This series, referred to sometimes as the Nazareth Conferences, focused initially on the shadow cast by the Holocaust on Germans and Israelis. It began with the need felt by a group of Israeli and German psychoanalysts to work on the deeply-lodged suspicion, hostility and unbearable guilt which marked the relationship between Germans and Israelis/Jews as a legacy of the Holocaust. The Group Relations approach was chosen as the best suited working method and adapted to this specific end. The first three conferences were held in Israel and Germany, and their story – contained in a recently published book – relates how the Group Relations method was modified for this purpose. The book gives examples of the impact and significance of these events on the German and Israeli/Jewish participants, many of whom were helped to repair a relationship that had been catastrophically damaged by the Holocaust. The fourth and fifth conferences included affected Others and were held in Cyprus. The sixth and seventh conferences in the same venue were extended to include Palestinians. Participants who worked on this interface and its effect on their personal and professional life found this work hugely beneficial, and many returned for a further opportunity to deepen their engagement with the process. Aim of the Conference The aim of the conference is to provide a setting, away from the pressures of daily life, in which participants can experience, reflect, explore and begin to work with the unconscious and not-quite conscious factors involved in the relationships, in the mind and in actuality, between the individuals and groups present at the conference. Living and working together for six days provides opportunities to examine past and present psychic and social processes from different angles, to become aware of attitudes, feelings, reactions and fantasies, to reconsider one’s identity as a member of a group, to express and explore existing ideas as well as new ones, to apply and test all these within the conference, and subsequently to take them home for future application in professional and other roles. The Primary Task To provide opportunities for participants to explore how the full range of feelings, fantasies and experiences about victims and perpetrators shape relations within and between individuals and groups in the conference, and how they affect and influence perceptions of the past, the present and the future. Method Group relations conferences are experiential events. Inner thoughts, feelings and fantasies about oneself as a participant and as a member of one (or more) of the groups within the conference are the raw materials that every individual brings to the work of the conference. The conference provides a setting in which these can be experienced, explored and worked with, in oneself, within groups, between groups, and within the conference as a whole. Much of this work is carried out in the here and now. The work of the conference is done in groups. Most groups will have one or more consultants, whose role is not to lead the group but to facilitate the group’s working on the primary task of the conference. Consultants do so by focusing on the dynamics and the work of the group as a whole, rather than on the individuals within it. There is no teaching of the conventional kind, and what each individual participant learns cannot be predicted in advance, as it depends on the extent and nature of the individual’s participation in the ongoing process. Membership This residential conference invites people from the nations of Europe and elsewhere – from all walks of life and all ages – who recognize the painful residues of war and historical trauma and are puzzled by their impact on them. No previous experience of this kind of conference is necessary except the wish to learn from ones experience of membership and to participate in the events of the conference. The Role of Staff The Staff are a significant element in the conference. They are not mere observers of the process but have an active involvement in it. However, they also have specific tasks and roles. The staff collectively forms the conference management, with authority and responsibility for setting the boundary conditions of task, territory and time – the work, the where and the when of events – that are essential for enabling participants to engage in the primary task of the conference. In addition, individual staff members take up specific directorial, administrative and consultant roles. In their consultant roles, based on their own experience and observations, staff members will offer working hypotheses about what is happening in the here and now of the event, with the aim of focusing attention on group processes and their impact on participants learning. The Program The conference working day will usually begin at 7:45 and end at 21:30. However, on the first day (27 August 2014) the Opening Plenary will begin at 15:00. On the last day (1 September 2014) the final event will end at 12:30. In addition, one evening slot (from 18:00 onwards) and one afternoon slot (14:30 to 16:00) will be left free. The working day will be interspersed with breaks for breakfast (8:45-9:30), lunch (13:00 to 14:30), coffee (10:30- 11:00; 16:00-16:30) and dinner (18:00-20:00). The primary task of the conference is pursued through several different types of events, including: Small Study Groups (SSG). These are groups of about 8-12 members with a consultant. The task is to study what unfolds in the group in the here and now, while working on the primary task of the conference. Large Study Group (LSG). This group brings together the entire membership with several consultants. The task of this group is to study the ‘here and now of the large group process as it unfolds, while working on the primary task of the conference. System Event (SE). The SE provides a setting in which members can explore and study the nature of their relatedness to their own group and to other groups present in the system. The event will start with members forming groups. The aim of the event is to shed light on what is involved in belonging to a group, and in the relationships that develop between different groups. The specific task is to study the ongoing processes of establishing and developing relationships within the system as a whole. This is a here and now event in which all participants are involved. Staff will take part as a management group and will also make consultancy available. Plenaries (P). Plenaries involve all members and all staff. The Opening Plenary introduces the conference and provides an opportunity for participants to enter into the conference, to explore and reflect on the experience of doing so and taking up roles within it. The Closing Plenary aims to review the conference experience and to work on the process of ending. Review and Application Groups (RAG). Depending on the conference membership, there will be about 5-7 members of the same background in each group. Each group will have its own consultant. The purpose is to enable members to examine and reflect on the different roles they have taken up within the conference. It also aims to help members articulate their experience of the conference and to link it with their personal and professional roles in their home environment. Social Dreaming Matrix (SDM). This is an open meeting in which dreams can be shared, associated to and understood as the dreams of the entire system. It will take place every morning (except for the last day) before breakfast. The event is open to all participants, members and staff, and staff “hosts” will be provided. Additional events or modifications of the above events may take place, depending on the conference composition and dynamics. A detailed timetable of the events will be available at the beginning of the conference. 5 Strona 5 z 9 2 z 9 Wyświetlanie Flyer 2014.pdf.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 04:20:32 +0000
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