Newsletter

Transcription

Newsletter

EATGA - AEATG
Newsletter
10th year / nr.9 - new serie nr.1
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EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF TRANSCULTURAL GROUP ANALISYS
ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE POUR L’ANALYSE TRANSCULTURELLE DE GROUPE
siège social: Burgerlijke vernnootschap onder vorm van een bvba - Willy Mestdagt
Lagrou - Bruggestraat 146 8830 - Gits (Belgium)
Content Newsletter
3.
4.
7.
8.I
Editorial - Giovanna Cantarella
Message from / Nouvelle de - Kurt Husemann
Program of Social Dreaming
Introduction to “Social Dreaming” and report of two workshops in Raissa and
Clarice Town (Footnotes) - Claudio Neri
17. London EATGA-AEATG Study Day, March 8th, 2003
“Group: Illusion and hope. The collapse of trust in groups and society”
Introduction by President Kurt Husemann
The dilemma between illusion and hope. The collapse of trust
in groups and society - Giovanna Cantarella
Supervision - Intervision in a transcultural setting - Marlene Spero
25. MEMBERS’ ADDRESSES
Conseil d’Administration/Board:
Giovanna Cantarella (président), Ugo Corino (vice-président), Mary Spreng-Courtney (trésorier),
Kurt Husemann, Zsuzsa Sipos, Ted Grant.
Coopted by the board as responsible for the Newsletter: Roberto Carnevali
Registration nr.557 / oct-6 th -2003 to the Tribunal of Milano
Editorial Office: Via Soresina, 12 - 20144 MILANO
Responsible Director: Roberto Carnevali
Herausgeber/Publisher/Editeur:
Associazione ARPANet per la Cultura - via Sant’Orsola, 5 - 20123 MILANO
www.ARPANetperlaCultura.it - [email protected]
Editorial
Dear colleagues,
it is with enormous pleasure that, on behalf of
the board, I welcome, after a long pause, the
publication of this 2004 number of EATGA
AEATG Newsletter.
Roberto Carnevali has been appointed by the
Board as responsible for the editorial activities
of the Association and for the publishing of
EATGA AEATG newsletter. We thank him for
the work he has accepted to do for us. Next step
is now to constitute the editorial committee.
Roberto Carnevali will continue the work
done for long and with passion by Christine
Schwankhart Perez de Laborda.
We have undergone many vicissitudes and
changements. We all regret Kurt Husemann
hasn’t continued to be our President, we
owe him “to have kept us together” as Dennis
Brown said in our last general Assembly.
I thank you all for having trusted me as the
new President The Board is now developing
initiatives and projects for opening the
Association to a wider participation of the
members, hoping thus that more individual
iactivities and projects will be proposed and,
if possible, developed inside EATGA AEATG
Kurt Husemann will illustrate this program
to you having being apponted by the Board
(together with Silvana Koen) as reference point
for this task.
With my best wishes
Giovanna Cantarella
EATGA AEATG President
Milano, december, 15th 2003
Chers collègues,
c’est avec beaucoup de plaisir qu’au nom
du Board je donne le bienvenu, après une
longue pause, à la publicatione de ce nombre
du 2004 de Newsletter de l’EATGA-AEATG.
Roberto Carnevali a eté nommé par le Board
responsable pour les activités editorials
de l’Association et pour la publication de
Newsletter de l’EATGA-AEATG. Nous le
remercions pour le travail qu’il a accepté
d’effectuer pour nous. La prochaine étape est
maintenant constitué le comité de rédaction.
Roberto Carnevali continuera le travail
effectué longuement et avec passion par
ChristineSchwankhart Perez de Laborda. Nous
avons eté exposées à beaucoup de vicissitudes
et changements. Nous regrettons que Kurt
Husemann n’aie continué à être notre Président;
nous lui sommes reconneissants pour «nous
avoir tenu ensemble», comme Dennis Brown a
dit dans notre dernière assemblée générale.
Je vous remercie tous pour avoir eu confiance
en moi comme neuf Président.
Le Board maintenant est en train de developper
des initiatives et des projets pour ouvrir
l’Association à un grande partecipation des
membres, dans l’espoir qu’ainsi plus d’activités
individuelles et plus de projets soient proposés
et, s’il est possible, qu’ils soient développés
dans l’EATGA-AEATG. Kurt Husemann,
qui, avec Silvana Koen, a eté nommé par le
Board référent de ce travail, vous illustrera ce
programme.
Mes meillers veux.
Giovanna Cantarella
Président EATGA-AEATG
Milan, le 15 décembre 2003
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Newsletter 10th year / nr.9 - new serie nr.1
Message from
Nouvelle de
Kurt Husemann
Kurt Husemann
Gratitudes
A new time in the life of our association has
started. The Newsletter, edited by Roberto
Carnevali documents the transition and new
beginning of our Transcultural Association.
I would like to thank everyone who
accompagnied me on this way with critics and
support to lead the European Association into
her 2nd decade.
Those who had helped to carry the work
actively in the board have understood the
meaning of Goethe words
“Stirb und
werde” seen as a prerequisite of any creative
development.
I also owe to thank the board members who
will carry the work furthermore, and the
board members who can´t stay in the board
accordingly. I am pleased that Zsuzsa Sipos
(London) came into the board to keep the
traditional good relation to GAS (London).
I also thank those who were engaged in
special functions within the last year. Only to
name some of them: Dennis Brown, Malcolm
Pines, Silvana Koen, Silvia Amati-Sas and the
staff of the Fiesole II workshop. Unfortunately,
the workshop had to be cancelled due to the
shock in September 01, where many people
didn’t carry out their planned journeys. The
Staff had done particularly good work in the
development of a theoretical conception.
I am sure that with Giovanna Cantarella the
new turn to the outside, prepared for a long
time will be successful.
I wish Giovanna much support of other
members of the association.
Des remerciements
Un nouveau temps dans la vie de notre
Association a commencé.
Le nouveau Newsletter édité par Roberto
Carnevali documente la transition et le nouveau
début notre Association Transculturelle.
Je voudrais remercier tous ceux, qui ont
mené avec moi, avec critique et soutenant,
l’Association européenne dans sa 2ème
décennie.
Tous ceux on a avec porté le travail activement
dans le Board ont compris le sens du mot
« Stirb und werde (Goethe)» (meurs et soit)
considéré comme une précondition d’un
développement créatif.
Je remercie cependant aussi ceux-ci aussi les
membre du Board qui porteront aussi le travail
dans le future, celui-ci après ne pourraient plus
être membre du Board d’après le statut. Je me
réjouis, que Zsuzsa Sipos (Londres) est entrée
dans le Board et tiendra le tradionell bon
liaison avec le GAS.
Je remercie cependant aussi particulièrement
ceux-ci, qui étaient engagés dans fonctions
particulières au cours des dernières années.
A cela, je voudrais appeler particulièrement:
Dennis Brown, Malcom Pines, Silvana Koen,
Luc Michel et Rudi Olivieri, qui ont présentés
des workshop transculturels aux autres
conférences et le staff du workshop Fiesole II.
Dû au choc en septembre 01, où beaucoup de
gens ne réalisèrent pas des voyages prévues,
cet workshop dut être annulé. Le Staff avait fait
du travail qui était bon dans le développement
d’une conception théorique.
Je suis sûr que l’on réussira avec Giovanna
Cantarella au tournement à l’extérieur qui était
préparé dans les dernières années.
Je souhaite Giovanna beaucoup de soutien
d’autres membres de l’Association à cela.
Reference point for transcultural
initiatives
A central discussion point within the last
few years was the support and integration of
scientific projects, workshop conceptions by
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single members, local and regional activities.
A number of working groups, combined from
members and board members has reflected this
dynamics.
The board has taken over the task to stimulate
and coordinate personal initiatives of EATGAAETGA members.
The development of national groupings
doesn’t correspond to the spirit of our work
very much.
I would like to invite all interested members
to present their scientific projects, workshops,
convention contributions etc... We will help
to make a realization possible and guarantee
an imbedding in the tradition of the scientific
concepts of the association.
Silvana Koen (Milan) and me are the contact
persons of the board for these initiatives.
Giovanna Cantarella will immediately turn
to some members, we know that they have
developed intercultural initiatives.
Transcultural Inter/Supervision
From the beginning, psychoanalytical
research has always resulted from the clinical
experience. In turn scientific concepts must
prove itself in her relation on the clinical
practice.
For several years, we offered Inter/Supervision
groups within our Studydays.
The clinical groups have worked very well
and fertilely. A little working group started
to develop a concepts for future Inter/
Supervisiongroups.
1.: There will be a Inter/superviongroup during
the following annual Studydays.
2.: Master workshop
A closed group which works over a restricted
period of approximately two years which will
meet in different places of Europe for two till
three times in the year.
This group is open to all psychoanalysts and
groupanalysts with at least five years of clinical
practice.
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Point de housse des initiatives
transculturels
Reference point for transcultural
initiatives
Un point de discussion central au cours des
dernières années fut le soutien et l’intégration
des projets scientifiques, conceptions des
workshops par certains membres, des activités
locales et régionales.
Une série de groupes de travail, ont réfléchi
cette dynamique.
Nous sommes venus à la conviction que le
développement de groupements nationaux ne
correspond pas beaucoup à l’esprit de notre
travail.
Mais cela c’est une tâche centrale des membres
du Boards de l` EATGA-AETGA de stimuler e
dìnteger des initiatives personnelles.
Je voudrais inviter tous les membres intéressés
a présenter des propositions scientifiques, des
ateliers, des contributions de congrès etc... au
Board.
Le Board peut soutenir ces projects pour
permettre une réalisation et dans la tradition
des concepts scientifiques de l’Association,
garantir en même temps une intégration.
Silvana Koen (Milan) et moi sommes élues
comme interlocuteurs du Board pour ces
initiatives.
Inter/Supervision Transculturel
Depuis le début, la recherche psychanalytique
a résulté de l’expérience clinique. Concepts
scientifiques doivent de nouveau faire ses
preuves dans la relation clinique.
Depuis plusieurs années, nous avons fait
l’expérience avec des groupes de Inter/
Supervision transculturel.
Dans nos deux derniers Studydays, les groupes
cliniques ont travaillé bien très et fertilement.
Il s’est formé un petit groupe de travail qui
développera des groupes de Inter/Supervision
transculturel cliniques.
1.: dans les Studydays annuel suivants, il y aura
The work of this group also will be basis an
EATGA-AEGTA research project.
3.: Weekend workshops in collaboration with
other institutions, such as the Goethe institute
London where we are invited, psychoanalytical
and group analytical trainig institutes.
These workshops will be open for e.g. social
workers, psychologists, doctors, nurse,
personnel officers etc., which are interested in
transcultural processes.
I invite all interested members to participate
in these projects. Please mention national and
international meetings to us on time so we can
be present workshops of your own, too.
I hope to see you in Rome.
Düsseldorf, 9-20-2003
Kurt Husemann
un groupe de Inter/Supervision transculturel.
2.: Masterworkshop
Un groupe fermé qui travaille sur une période
limitée de deux ans environ, de deux jusqu’à
trois fois dans l’année, dans de lieux différents
d’Europe.
Ce groupe est ouvert pour psychanalystes et
pour analystes de groupe avec au moins cinq
ans de pratique clinique.
Le travail de ce groupe sera aussi accompagné
dùn project de recherche de lÈATGAAEGTA.
3.: Des workshop en collaboration avec
d’autres institutions, comment par exemple
l’institut Goethe de Londres, où nous sommes
invités, instituts de formation psychanalytiques
et groupeanalytiques.
On sera ouvert pour des participants, qui sont
intéressés à des processus transculturel (par ex.
travailleurs sociaux, psychologues, médecins,
infirmières, chefs de personnel etc.).
J’invite tous les membres intéressés à participer
à ces projets. Veuillez aussi nous indiquer des
conférences nationales et internationales lors
desquelles nous pouvons être présents avec de
propres workshops.
À bientôt à Rome.
Dusseldorf, 20.09.2003
Kurt Husemann
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EATGA-AEATG is glad to invite you to the Social Dreaming
Intercultural Workshop in Rome, October 2003, 10-11-12.
According to EATGA-AEATG scientific tradition the workshop offers to participants to experience
a multilingual process.
Claudio Neri will introduce us to the new and exciting experience of people connecting through
dreamtelling and free associations, of minds dreaming together in the Social Dreaming Matrices as
Gordon Lawrence has developed them in his SD Theory.
“...The dreamer gives voice to the dream, but the dream is not only his/her own dream, it catches
and describes the social, political and istitutional realities the dreamer is part of... The new and
unexpected social meanings of his/her dream develop through the group free associations giving
form to echoes of thoughts which are in the space between individuals, between minds and the
shared context...”
(Gordon Lawrence: Social Dreaming. Karnac Books).
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on”
(Shakespeare, The Tempest)
Program of the Social Dreaming
Friday, October 10th , 2003
6,20 – 6,30 pm
workshop introduction ( Giovanna Cantarella EATGA-AEATG President )
6.30 – 7.00 pm
Claudio Neri: introduction to Social Dreaming
7,30 – 9.00 pm
first SD matrix
Saturday, October 11th, 2003
10.00 – 11.30 am second SD matrix
12.00 – 13.30 pm third SD matrix
Lunch break
2.30 – 4.00 pm
Thinking dialogue group
Sunday, October 12th, 2003
9.30 –11.00 am fourth SD matrix
11.30 – 12.30 am fifth SD Matrix
12,45 – 13,45 pm closing debate
Venue: Centro Congressi AR.S.A.P. – Viale Romania, 32 – I – 00197 Roma
Tel. 0039 6 84482734 - fax 0039 6 8546470 e-mail: [email protected] sito: www.arsap.net
50 Participants will be accepted
As each matrix envisages no more than 25 persons Giovanna Cantarella will conduct a second matrix in case of
more than 25 registrations.
Both conductors will conduct using English and French
For references see: Gordon Lawrence: Social Dreaming. Karnac Books, London 1988
Social Dreaming , Borla 2001: Dreams in Group Psychotherapy (Ed. Neri, Pines and Friedman )
Jessica Kingsley, London 2003
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Introduction to “Social Dreaming” and report of two workshops in
Raissa and Clarice Town (Footnotes)
Claudio Neri
My aim in this paper is to supply some information about Social Dreaming, a group method
which underlines the contribution that dreams may offer us in understanding not only the “inner
world” of dreamers, but also the social and institutional reality within which they live. Gordon
Lawrence (1998b), who discovered this technique, states that dreams contain fundamental
information regarding life and work as they are at the moment when these particular dreams are
dreamt. Social Dreaming does not challenge the great value of the traditional psychoanalytic
approach to dreams, but tries to emphasize their social dimension.
This paper is divided into five sections. The first provides a definition and explains the setting
and basic rules of Social Dreaming. The second gives an account of the use of Social Dreaming
in exploring and improving the social life of a group or an organization. The third attempts to
place Social Dreaming into a framework, that is, give a position to Social Dreaming among the
different approaches which have been used to work with dreams. The next part briefly illustrates
two experiences of mine in working according to the Social Dreaming method. The final section
has been an attempt to extract some methodological suggestions from Social Dreaming which
could be useful both for psychoanalysis and group psychotherapy.
1. Definition, setting and work during the sessions
“Social Dreaming” sessions usually last one and a half hours. Each session is part of a cycle that
can be small, such as 3-5 sessions or larger. It is better to avoid a one-time “win-lose” session of
Social Dreaming Matrices, as the development of a process is an important aspect of the method.
The most common format is a compact one, usually between one and three days. However, other
formats can also be used, e.g. a weekly session for a period of four to six months. The session of
Social Dreaming can be conducted by a single therapist or by a small staff which depends on the
size of the group or on personal preferences of the conductor.
The therapist and participants sit in a circle or in a spiral. The space in the middle or in between
is left empty. There may or may not be a short introductory talk in which basic information is
communicated. The work may start in any given way: directly with the narration of a dream,
with communications by one of the participants or with a question put to the therapist or to the
group.
If the therapist begins with a short introductory talk, he/she will explain that the participants
are invited to share their dreams, make associations and explore their possible social meaning.
Among the instructions that are given at the beginning, is a particularly important one concerning
associations to dreams; the therapist may underline that, at least at first, it is best for the
participants not to offer associations to their own dreams but rather associate to the dreams which
are related by the other people who are present. A dream can be told as an association to someone
else’s dream. This is particularly important because it suggests that a dream is not a personal
belonging, but becomes something shared by the whole group. (Hahn, 1998)
A few additional small rules may help the session to proceed well: allow the individual
participants to speak for not more than ten minutes, avoid answering questions that are put
directly and avoid engaging in a debate with just one person. Such rules have a common purpose:
to open a discussion which gives everyone the opportunity of speaking and discussing among
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themselves, rather than trying to draw others into a dialogue with oneself.
I will now give some account of how the work proceeds. First of all, dreams are developed on the
basis of free associations and amplifications. That is the most important part of the work, as I have
already expressed myself on this matter, for the moment, I won’t say anything more.
A second aspect of the work, which involves the contribution of all the participants, consists of:
a) highlighting the sequence of the dreams that have been told; b) linking images, dreams and
fantasies; c) looking at how different dreams may have points in common; d) acknowledging that
a dream told by another participant could have actually been dreamt by us; e) stressing the social
aspect of the dreams. This is a possible process, but each session has its own development and
may not necessarily include each point.
Through this technique, every dream reveals that it has not just one meaning but many different
ones which are all connected. The work that is done, however, mainly involves associations and
the identification of patterns, rather than interpretation.
The last aspect of the work, which is done by all the people present, is to understand whether the
dreams and associations provide useful elements to better understand some aspects of the social
environment and of the organisation to which the participants belong.
As a result of the way the work is dealt with, a dreamlike atmosphere is produced. The session
itself may be considered as a sort of dream of dreams. I can express the same idea saying that the
dreams are dreamt again during a Social Dreaming Matrix.
In order to give a fuller picture, I will say something not only about what is done during a session
of Social Dreaming, but also about what is not covered. Dreams are not as a rule linked to the
childhood of those who tell them and neither to the childhood of other participants. Dreams are
not used to stress any psychopathological aspect of the people who are present. Dreams are not
used to underline aspects of the emotional, relational or personal and private life of any of the
participants. It is also important to underline that Social Dreaming sessions don’t have a direct
therapeutic aim. (Armstrong, 1998a)
The person in charge of the group may present the work plan and will make sure that the rules
which apply to the setting are followed. He leaves it to the participants to make the associations
and find meanings and identify allegories and symbols. He steps in to facilitate this work,
but does not volunteer any interpretation regarding the group dynamics or the formation and
existence of sub-groups. His interventions are always based on what appears to be evident to the
people who are present and are meant to help to recognise the social meaning of the dreams and
of the associations.
2. Social Dreaming in organisations and in professional associations
Lawrence and other researchers have gradually developed the idea that in order to understand
organisations, associations and institutions better, it would be necessary to take their dream life
into account. They have refined the Social Dreaming method and used it in various contexts:
business consultancy, refresher courses, training counsellor programmes, congresses and so on.
Social Dreaming’s immediate origins date back to the early 1980s. At that time, Gordon Lawrence
was on the scientific staff of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. He was joint director of
the Institute’s Group Relations Programme, within which he had developed a distinctive approach
centring around the concept of “relatedness” - that is, the ways in which individual experience
and behaviour reflects and is structured by conscious and unconscious constructs of the group or
organization in the mind. Together with Patricia Daniel, a colleague at the Tavistock, Lawrence
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framed the idea of having “a group of people who would dream socially”. In 1982, the first
experiment in “Social Dreaming” was mounted and called simply ‘A Project in Social Dreaming
and Creativity’. It ran over eight weeks, made up of weekly sessions, with thirteen members of
varied professional backgrounds, most of whom were familiar with the Tavistock tradition of
group study. The sessions were named as a “Social Dreaming Matrix,” where matrix had the
meaning of “a place out of which something grows”. “Social Dreaming” could be defined as a
method of working with dreams according to which dreams are shared within a group of people
who convene for this purpose. During “Social Dreaming” sessions, the participants present
various dreams that have been offered to the group so that it is possible to establish links and
connections. (Armstrong, 1998; Lawrence, 1998a)
After this very short explanation about the origin, I will come back to the application of Social
Dreaming in the organizations. There are periods in the life of an organisation when tensions
and conflicts reach peak levels. During these phases, a large percentage of energies are directed
towards seeking “answers”. Instead, it may be more useful to allow the “questions” that are
present in the life of the organisation develop. In order to do this, an appropriate “container”
is needed. In such a “container”, the questions can develop and people can relate to them and
work through them. Dreams may represent such a container, and “Social Dreaming” the right
technique. (Tatham and Morgan, 1998; Ambrosiano, 2001)
The life of organisations and of professional associations could be divided into three levels.
The first level involves practical, administrative and even bureaucratic work, the second one
has to do with vision, ideals, theories and ideology and the third, with the dream and fantasy
life. This last one is a dimension of the life of the organisation as something that is constantly
dreamt. However, this dimension is often insufficient or at any rate deficient. Such a deficiency
stretches the separation between the practical level and the visionary level of the organisation, to
the detriment of both. The “Social Dreaming” method helps to stress the importance of the level
of the dreams and replenishes the dream level which should be present in every organisation.
(Lawrence, 1998)
Furthermore, the “Social Dreaming” method helps to see the people who are part of an
organisation or of an association in terms of their style of thinking, imagination and dreaming,
rather than in terms of their role and psychopathologies. Such a shift of perspective often has the
positive effect of pushing power issues into the background and concentrating instead on a way
of thinking which diverges from mainstream thinking, and concentrates on group thought as a
way of making advances.
As a result of “Social Dreaming” sessions, people often recover a sense of wholeness and of
being intimately connected with others. Such a feeling was lost when the atmosphere of the
organization began to be characterised by conflicts and “political” divisions.
3. Historical outline
Lawrence says that Social Dreaming has a very long past and a short current history. There
is nothing new in the construction material of Social Dreaming - dreams and free associations
- but there is something which is truly revolutionary in the method and field of application. The
dream’s individual functions have overshadowed its communicative functions for groups or the
community for many centuries. From our contemporary perspective, some of these very ancient
approaches are worth recovering. (Selvaggi, 2001)
In very ancient culture and in many tribal cultures, dreams, like myths, were told and discussed
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on a regular basis, in collective gatherings. Because the group shared so much in the way of
symbols, language, its members were able to “read” most of the significance of a dream. Their
ritual specialists were aware of the multiplicity of meanings and voices of the communal
symbols, but their interpretive discourse was to accentuate, illuminate, integrate, and elaborate
through poetic resonance rather than disenchant. Phrased more abstractly, dream interchange
facilitated the adjustment of group members to each other, and so could be especially beneficial
in those areas where it was necessary for cooperation and interdependence to proceed easily,
unreflectively, harmoniously, as among the small tribe, collectively confronting a harsh world
and living, hunting and, on occasions, fighting as a unit, entrusting their lives to each other.
Within the urbanized world of the classical Mediterranean - Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel and
Greece - dreams became items for individual attention rather than group concern. They were
regarded as messages to individual dreamers. Being previously transparent and influential
within the shared living of the group, the language of the dream became obscure: the dream
bore a significant message, but if that message were to be understood, interpretation was needed.
Dreams were no longer a vehicle of unconscious “attunement” within the group, possibly
requiring collective response, but rather, they revealed the fate of the individuated dreamer.
In the second century A.D., Artemidorus of Daldia - like Freud - wrote a book called “The
Interpretation of Dreams.” Both Artemidorus and Freud applied assumptions leading to an
“individual approach” to dreams. This approach needed specialized expertise to decode
condensation and displacement Epicurean literature. As Artemidorus puts it: “A man will not
dream about things to which he has never given any thought.” Both Artemidorus and Freud
assume the existence of a split between the individual’s conscious and unconscious and both
privilege allegorical dreams containing multilevel images. (Murray, 1999; Wilson de Armas,
1993)
Freud placed dreams at the centre of the scientific project of psychoanalysis. Dreams were
especially considered in terms of the interpretations that made it possible to understand their
meaning. Notions such as “censor” and “displacement” were developed to explain the processes
involved in dreaming and remembering and forgetting dreams. It was an extraordinary effort,
thanks to which, the narration and interpretation of dreams have become significant aspects of
psychoanalytical work.
Over time, scholars of considerable standing within the psychoanalytic tradition have added to,
and in part, corrected some aspects of Freud’s theory. In particular, many psychoanalysts began
to consider dreams not so much as distorted presentations of desires but rather as a representation
of feelings, desires, fantasies and thoughts. It has been highlighted that the very presence of such
feelings and thoughts in dreams could be a sign which revealed their importance for the affective
life of the dreamer.
Furthermore, emphasis was placed on the fact that many dreams could provide significant insight
into the situation that the dreamer was living at that moment of his/her life and into his/her
personality. Many psychoanalysts believe that dreams contain not only significant elements
that help to understand the condition of the dreamer, but they also provide information on the
fears that are present in the social environment in which he/she lives. From this perspective,
dreams can be considered not only as an expression of individual difficulties, but also as special
representations of points of view and ideas regarding the community in which the individual lives
and the organisations to which he/she belongs.
Many Italian psychoanalysts – Riolo (1982), Corrao (1986), Gaburri (1992), Vallino Macció
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(1992), Ferro (1996), Correale A. et all. (2001) – have also clearly stated that the dream represents
“the psychoanalytical environment” and acquires it’s meaning in this very environment.
4. Workshops in Raissa and Clarice Town
I will say something about two Social Dreaming workshops. The first was held in Israel. There
were thirty five participants in the workshops, among them four Arab-Israelis. The participants
were psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers who belonged to an organization which
promoted dialogue between conflicting groups and communities: Israelis and Palestinians, Jews
and Arabs, Secular and Religious Jews. I ran this workshop with an Israeli colleague.
The organization itself is a highly conflicting group: the members are divided between left and
right, a division that after the murder of the premier Rabin by an extreme right-wing activist,
has become even more sharp. At present left and right-wing participants have different and
conflicting opinions and feelings about important issues, such as the peace process with the
Palestinians and the fate of the Jewish settlers. Very strong feelings have been aroused by the
“Intifada” and the recent kamikaze attacks in supermarkets, bus stations and restaurants. The war
or guerrilla opposing Palestinians and Israelis was the most important theme during the three
sessions.
At the beginning of the first session, I gave a very short introduction. This session was
characterized by an almost frenzy of dreams. One followed another in a progressively more
intense fashion. On the surface it appeared that each person was isolated within his own self
so that he/she was unable to associate to the dreams of the other and could only bring his own
into light, but gradually it emerged that the dreams being told were actually themselves the
association to and the working through of the dreams which came before. With astonishing
force, common themes began to be very evident and were remarked upon: feelings of being lost
and unsure of one’s way, feelings of being abandoned by parental authority figures, guilt towards
one’s own children.
Here is an example of a dream which shows how a participant feels guilty because of the time
and energy given voluntarily to the association, instead of to the daughter. “My daughter is doing
some dress shopping in the Robinia Mall. The shopkeeper takes 380 Bongos from her purse and
gives it to charity. The daughter is outraged, she wants her money back. The shopkeeper tells
her she can get it, but has to collect it either at the Left wing Center, or at a religious school in
Robinia”.
The next common theme is expressed by dreams of revenge and killing, of threat and danger and
of shame.
The participants were - as I said previously - people who had in the past defined themselves
according to the politically left and right in Israel. It appeared as if on this occasion, they were
able to begin a dialogue. This included some very emotionally intense self-examination of very
basic political positions but only after a revelation of a kind of common basic experience which
was revealed in the similarities of the dreams which transcended the division of left and right.
I was able in both the first and second sessions to focus upon the major themes in the dreams
and on their progression. The third session focused upon the organization itself. I asked the
participants to relate associations and reflections on the dreams concerning the organization. It
was here that more discord emerged, more anger was expressed, boundaries were violated.
I will now propose some general comments.
1. In the day-conscious discourse of the participants the division between the Palestinians and the
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Israelis was expressed as two fronts. It was obvious for everyone that Palestinians and Israelis
were fighting. Conflicting opinions were expressed regarding how to deal with the conflict, but
only about that. On the other hand, in the dreams, the Palestinians were not only enemies, but also
sons, servants, helping people, oppressed people. A member of the group dreamt a Palestinian
was a Genie. She swallowed it and began a process, heading towards her transformation. “A
terrible genie came out of my mouth. I fought him with hate and then I ate the genie”.
2. The Nazi and Holocaust theme is present in the dreams, but the central shared drama is
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The present fight is overlapped and confused with the terrible
memory and myth of Nazi persecution, with it’s whole collection of feelings and fantasy. At the
same time the memory of the Holocaust leads to strong and conflicting identification with the
Palestinian people.
3. The time as represented in dreams (actually, many dreams are nightmares) is a time which
doesn’t go in any particular direction. It doesn’t run either forwards or backwards. It is not,
either the circular time of myth or the time of the “après coup”, it is a time which is able to
give new meaning to the appearance of old events. The time in the dreams/nightmares (and in
the group session) is a repetitive time, only. No actions can be completed and recognized as
having happened. The same action is enacted again and again or followed by an action which is
apparently opposite, but, in fact, identical.
4. I made various comments on the latter point, showing the participants the influence of this
perception of time on what was happening in the group. They succeeded in changing the repetitive
sequence through a discussion about the image of “dignified killers”. One woman-participant
related an episode regarding a pregnant woman, who, coming out from her passive attitude,
killed a Nazi guard. Someone in the group commented that the women had this possibility
because she was pregnant. She felt that she was killing not only because she hated, but also for
some more universal reason. Another member of the group told us about his feeling, when he
was on guard during the night, because his family was in danger. When you are in a particular
situation you are not a killer, but a “dignified killer”. A dignified killer can accept the fact that he
kills. The counterpart of a “dignified killer” is an enemy, not a foe or a victim. A dignified killer
is different from a professional killer. After a murder, a professional killer looks neat and clean,
but something has been destroyed both in himself and in his victim. An honourable killer can
maybe preserve some honours for himself and his enemy.
The workshop in Clarice Town had the same format of the Raissa one: four sessions were held.
There were twenty five participants: all were psychotherapists who belonged to an association
which gathers all the psychotherapists who use a psycho-dynamic approach and who had a
psychoanalytical oriented training, although they follow different schools and theoretical
orientation: Self psychology, Kleinian, Tavistock, etc. The decision to converge in a single
association, is a result of the fact that the number of the psychotherapists in New Valdrade is
very low. I would like to relate a dream, adding just a few comments. During the second session,
a woman, who is one of the founders of the association, told us the following dream.
“I was jogging, wearing short pants. I was in much better shape, than I had been for a long time
and perhaps ever. I also felt much better: rather sexy.” The dream-teller adds “I think that the
dream has a reference to our association even if it seems very personal.”
The dream attracted much interest. Many fantasies and associations arouse. Some one recalled
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the “girls of “Ashcombie road.” It is a road which is famous for bars and easy girls. Another
member speaks about the fact that, at the beginning the atmosphere in the association used to
be warmer and more active. A third person expresses her fantasies which were aroused by the
announcement that an Italian psychoanalyst was about to come to Clarice Town.
At this point of the proceedings, the discussion was carried head only by a few of the total
number of participants, the founders of the association. Listening to their discussion I got the
impression that they were taking a decision without however making any explicit reference to
the point in question of the decision nor to the fact that they were taking it. One of them asked
another, “Do you remember when the supervisors came from Eudoxia?”
Once a month, three training psychoanalysts used to come from Eudoxia in Maurilia to Clarice
Town to hold supervisions and seminars, in order to start the association. They were staying from
Friday to Sunday. Some of the youngest psychotherapists were invited for dinner and for drinks
after that. Something unconventional and inappropriate happened. The whole transgression
had subsequently passed under silence. The training psychoanalysts who had taken part in this
misdemeanour were not asked to come again.
Immediately after this old story had been told, one of the younger members of the association,
rebelling, said: “How could you not even mention all that to us, for more than ten years!!” The
next: “How nice! You have been having a nice time and us?” Another: “Now, I understand why
sexuality and even the slightest sign of friendly flirtation or proximity between fellow members
is banished from the life of our association”.
5. Methodological remarks
My first comment focuses on the astonishing plasticity of the dream. In the Social dreaming
sessions, it carries out specific and original functions. It fits the Social dreaming setting, just as
it fits the traditional psychoanalytical setting.
I would like to look at some suggestions that the Social Dreaming method may offer the
psychoanalytical and group psychotherapy setting.
The Social dreaming method emphasizes the importance of telling and sharing dreams among
the members of a group. I think that sharing the narrative of a dream may also offer an important
contribution to the fine-tuning of the relationship and exchanges which take place in the
traditional psychoanalytical setting. (Friedman, 1999)
The Social dreaming method suggests that a dream can throw some light onto the life of an
organization or a group. My report about the Raissa workshop suggests that it could be useful
to compare the daily-images of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the one which appears in the
dreams. It may possibly be convenient to make similar use of dreams in the psychoanalytical
setting too.
The last remark concerns group psychotherapy, in particular. In the Social dreaming sessions,
the significance that a dream has for the dreamer is not taken into account, this is done in order to
call attention to it’s social meaning. In the group psychotherapy sessions, the correct technique
is to go from the social meaning (or group meaning) to the private and personal one of a single
member, and again then from the personal to the group meaning. (Neri, 2001)My aim in this
paper is to supply some information about Social Dreaming, a group method which underlines
the contribution that dreams may offer us in understanding not only the “inner world” of
dreamers, but also the social and institutional reality within which they live. Gordon Lawrence
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(1998b), who discovered this technique, states that dreams contain fundamental information
regarding life and work as they are at the moment when these particular dreams are dreamt.
Social Dreaming does not challenge the great value of the traditional psychoanalytic approach
to dreams, but tries to emphasize their social dimension.
This paper is divided into five sections. The first provides a definition and explains the setting
and basic rules of Social Dreaming. The second gives an account of the use of Social Dreaming
in exploring and improving the social life of a group or an organization. The third attempts to
place Social Dreaming into a framework, that is, give a position to Social Dreaming among the
different approaches which have been used to work with dreams. The next part briefly illustrates
two experiences of mine in working according to the Social Dreaming method. The final section
has been an attempt to extract some methodological suggestions from Social Dreaming which
could be useful both for psychoanalysis and group psychotherapy.
References
Ambrosiano, L. (2001). Introduzione all’edizione italiana. In Lawrence, W.G. (edt) Social
Dreaming. La funzione sociale del sogno. Borla, Roma.
Armstrong, D. (1998). Introduction. In Lawrence, W.G. (edt). Social Dreaming at Work. London,
Karnak Book. [trad. ital. Social Dreaming. La funzione sociale del sogno. Borla, Roma 2001].
Armstrong, D. (1998a). Thinking aloud: contributions to three dialogues. In Lawrence, W.G.
(edt). Social Dreaming at Work. London, Karnak Book. [trad. ital. Pensate a voce alta: contributi
a tre dialoghi. In Social Dreaming. La funzione sociale del sogno. Borla, Roma 2001].
Corrao, F. (1986). Il concetto di campo come modello teorico. In Corrao, F. (1998) Orme II.
Cortina editore, Milano.
Correale A. et all. (2001). Borderline. Lo sfondo psichico naturale. Borla, Roma.
Ferro, A. (1996). Sessualità e aggressività. Vettori relazionali e narrazioni. In Nella stanza di
analisi. Cortina Editore, Milano.
Friedman, R. (1999). Il racconto dei sogni come richiesta di contenimento e di elaborazione nella
terapia di gruppo./ Dreamtelling as a request for containment and elaboration in group therapy.
Funzione Gamma, 1. http://www.funzionegamma.edu
Gaburri, E. (1992). Emozioni, affetti, personificazione. Rivista di Psicoanalisi XXXVIII, 2
aprile/giugno.
Hahn, H. (1998). Dreaming to learn: pathways to rediscovery. In Lawrence, W.G. (edt). Social
Dreaming at Work. London, Karnak Book. [trad. ital. Sognare per imparare: percorsi verso la
riscoperta. In Social Dreaming. La funzione sociale del sogno. Borla, Roma 2001].
Lawrence, W.G. (1998). Prologue. In Lawrence, W.G. (edt). Social Dreaming at Work. London,
Karnak Book. [trad. ital. Prefazione. In Social Dreaming. La funzione sociale del sogno. Borla,
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Roma 2001].
Lawrence, W.G. (1998a). “Won from the void and formless infinite”: experiences of social
dreaming. In Lawrence, W.G. (edt). Social Dreaming at Work. London, Karnak Book. [trad.
ital. “Won from the void and formless infinite”: esperienze del sogno sociale. In Social
Dreaming. La funzione sociale del sogno. Borla, Roma 2001].
Lawrence, W.G. (1998b). Social dreaming as a tool of consultancy and action research In
Lawrence, W.G. (edt). Social Dreaming at Work. London, Karnak Book. [trad. ital. Il sogno sociale
come strumento di consulenza e ricerca di intervento. In Social Dreaming. La funzione sociale del
sogno. Borla, Roma 2001].
Murray, L.W. (1999). The angel of dreams: Toward an ethnology of dream interpreting. Journal of
the American Academy of Psychoanalysis; 27, 3, 417:430.
Neri, C. (20015). Gruppo. Borla, Roma. [Engl. Tr. Group. London and Philadelphia, Jessica
Kingsley Publisher. 1998].
Riolo, F. (1982). Sogno e teoria della conoscenza in psicoanalisi. Rivista di Psicoanalisi. XXVIII,
3.
Selvaggi, L. (2001). Review of Social Dreaming at Work/ Recensione di Social Dreaming. La
funzione sociale del sogno. Funzione Gamma, http://www.funzionegamma.edu
Tatham, P.; Morgan, H. (1998). The social dreaming matrix. In Lawrence, W. G. (edt). Social
Dreaming at Work. London, Karnak Book. [trad. ital. La matrice del sogno sociale. In Social
Dreaming. La funzione sociale del sogno. Borla, Roma 2001].
Vallino Macció, D. (1992). Atmosfera emotiva e affetti, pubblicato sulla Rivista di Psicoanalisi.
XXXVIII, 3.
Wilson de Armas, D. (1993) quoted according to Murray, L.W. (1999). The angel of dreams:
Toward an ethnology of dream interpreting. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis;
27, 3, 417:430.
Claudio Neri
Via Cavalier D’Arpino, 26
00197 Roma
Italia
[email protected]
[email protected]
This text, available on www.funzionegamma.edu, has been published under personal authorization
of the author.
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London EATGA-AEATG Study Day, March 8th, 2003
“Group: Illusion and hope. The collapse of trust in groups and society”
Introduction by President Kurt Husemann
Dear colleagues,
I am pleased that we have returned to London
after five years .
After I had taken over the function as a president
of the board, the first Studyday had the task of
the memory of the work donein the years before:
we have discussed in Cologne the results of all
workshops of the association. You will remember
that these workshops have worked about the
questions of transcultur and history, nationality,
language, religious upbringing, rivalry and
brothers and sisters conflict, the identity of the
psychotherapist in the transcultural.
In the folloing year in Milan the topic was:
“Transmissions and comprehension: Renewal or
repetition “.
This Studyday which intensively also dealt with
the history of the European Association had the
topic of the passing on of power and knowledge
between the generations and different cultural
groupings.
Last year in Zurich we have worked to the
topic:
“Social trust, hope, from individual to society”.
This year’s topic: “desillusion and hope, the loss
of trust in groups”, appears as a consequence for
the history of the EATGA of the last years but
also reflecting the events in our world.
Very briefly, I would like to say something to:
1.: the meaning of symbols and processes of
symbolisation in the transcultural .
2.: the function of aggression and destruction in
the process of the culture formation
Every psychoanalyst has to start with a quotation
of Freud to seem credible:
Freud said 1914:
“I had to realise , that it is the same thing in the
case of the sick persons in analysis as with the
psychoanalysts “.
So he has written in: “The history of the
psychoanalytical movement”.
He had said a year before:
“ Who is familiar with the nature of the neuroses
won’t be astonished to hear the following . Also
the one who is enabled very well to perform the
psychoanalysis to others can behave like any
other. He is able to produce the most intensive
resistances as soon as he is made to the object of
psychoanalysis himself”.
A number of highly qualified psychoanalysts
and group analysts from the different European
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Chères collègues,
je suis heureux d’être retourné avec le studyday
de nouveau à Londres.
Quand j’avais pris la fonction du président du
Board il y a quatre ans, le Studyday eut la tâche
du souvenir. : À Cologne on a discuté des
résultats des workshops : on a travaillé aux
questions dela transcultralité et de l´histoire,de
la nationalité, de la langue, de l´ éducation
réligieuse, de la rivalité et du conflit des frères
et sœurs, de l’identité du psychothérapeute dans
l’environnement transculturel .
Dans l’année 1999 à Milan, le sujet était:
“Transmissions et compréhension: Renouvellement ou répétition “.
Ce Studyday s’occupait aussi intensivement de
l’histoire de l’association européenne avait le
don de pouvoir et de savoir entre les générations
et groupements culturels différents.
La dernière année à Zurich , nous avons travaillé
au sujet: “Confiance sociale, l´ espoir : de
l’indivi-du à la société ”.
Le sujet de cette année: “entre illusion et espoir,
la perte de confiance en groupes”,
apparaisse comme conséquence de l’histoire
de l’EATGA , AETGA, des dernières années
mais aussi réflectant les événements dans notre
monde.
Je voudrais dire encore quelque chose tout à fait
brièvement à:
1.: la signification de symboles et du processus
de la sybolisation
dans les événements
transculturels.
2.: la fonction de l’agression et de la déstructivité
au processus de la formation des cultures
Chacun psychanalyste doit commencer avec une
citation de Freud: Freud disait en 1914 :
“ Je devais apprendre qu’e cèst la même chose
avec les psychanalystes comme avec les malades
dans l’analyse”. Il écrit ca dans l’ “histoire du
mouvement psychanalytique”.
Une année avant , il a dit: “Ceux, qui sont
familier avec la nature des névroses, ne seromt
pas étonnés d’entendre que celui qui est rendu
capable d’exercer la psychanalyse à des autres,
peut aussi se conduire comme des autres et
produire des résistances les plus intensives
quand ‘il est fait lui –même l’objet de la
psychanalyse”.
Avant plus de 20 ans, une série du psychanalyste
et analystes de groupe très qualifiés s’est
countries with different analytical backgrounds
started more than 20 years ago to investigate
the cultural dimension in the individual and
group identity by studying the process among
themselves.
It a wonder that this association has survived up
to today when we don not forget what Freud has
said about psychoanalysts.
To process information and to integrate
information, we make use of the process of the
symbolisation. To include the reality, understand
her and live in her, processe of symbolisation ,
must take place.
“Symbol formation is the basic prerequisite
for the ability to communicate because any
communication is based on symbols” said
Melanie Klein in 1957. Symbols are needed not
only in the communication with the outer world
but are important for the inner dialog, too.
What happens if we communicate about complex,
emotionally meaningful contents of our personal
relations in the intercultural field? There, we use
specific individual and group-related symbols
which have arisen over many generations and
which either aren’t existing in other cultures or
have another meaning in another culture.
In the preparation for our last Studyday we tried
to find a corresponding translation for the german
word “Glück” into Italian, English and French.
We have learned that obviously every european
culture carries a differently unconscious
appreciation which they understands by luck.
Besides the intercultural and transcultural
dimension there is another area in which inner and
outer communication on symbols can be blocked,
this is the moment of traumatisation which can
be understood as inability to process information
at a symbolic level. This is prerequisite for the
correct categorization and integration into other
experiences. (De Kolk 1996)
Each of us which works with patients from the
intercultural area or has taken part at one of our
intercultural workshops or has been a member
of the board over years will have experienced
these regressive moments which are intensive,
sometimes suddenly outbreaking and hardly
controllable transfer and countertransfer
emotions.
The often go beyond what we normally know
from the clinical work. These intensive transfer
and countertransfer processes remind us most
likely to the analytical work with borderlinepatients. Also in these these patients we can
describe a central disturbance of the capacity of
symbolisisation.
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réunie des pays européens différents avec une
formation analytique différent pour étudier la
dimension culturelle dans l’individue et dans
l’identité des groupes.
Cést un miracle que l’on a survécu comme
acciciation jusque aujourd´hui.
Pour assimiler et integrer des informations, nous
faisons usage du processus de la symbolisation.
Pour saisir la réalité, la comprendre et virvre
dans elle, les processus de la symbolisation
doivent avoir lieu.
“La formation de symbole est la condition
fondamentale pour la capacité de communiquer,
car toute communication repose sur la base de
symboles”. Ceci dit en de 1957 Melanie Klein
. On a besoin des symboles pas seulement dans
la communication avec le monde extérieur mais
aussi pour le dialogue intérieur.
Qu’est-ce qui arrive si nous communiquons
par des contenus qui sont complexes et
émotionnellement importants et qui éteignent nos
relations personalles dans le champ interculturel?
Là-bas, nous utilisons des symboles individuels
et relatifs au groupe spécifiques différents,
developpés dans beaucoup de générations, qui
ne sont pas disponibles dans une autre culture où
sont dùne signification culturelle.
Dans la préparation du dernier Studyday,
nous avons essayé dans le Board de trouver
une traduction correspondante en italien, en
anglais et en français pour le mot allemand
“Glück”. Nous avons appris que chaque
culture européenne portait une compréhension
différemment inconsciente qu’elle comprend
par le bonheur.
Il existe encore un autre domaine à côté de
l’inter- et transculturalité, dans lequel une
communication intérieure et extérieure sur des
symboles peut être bloquée, c’est le moment
du traumatisation qui peut être compris comme
incapacité d’assimiler des informations à un
niveau symbolique. C’est la précondition pour
la catégorisation correcte et pour l’intégration à
d’autres expériences. (De Kolk 1996)
Chacun d’entre nous qui travaille dans le
domaine interkulturel avec des malades ou
était membre de nos workshops interculturels
où a participé comme membre du Board aura
vécu ces moments régressifs intensifs, maniables
à peine qui rompent parfois subitement. Ce
sont des transfers et contre-transfers régressifs
très intensif., dùne qualité émotionnelle, qui
dépasse ce que nous connaissons habituellement
du travail clinique. Ce transfer et contre-transfer
nous fait penser le plus bientôt au travail
The process of symbolisation seems to be
very helpful to the understanding of trans- and
intercultural phenomena.
For Lacan, the trauma meant a not assimilable
experience which resits to any symbolisation in
the language, an experience which couldn´t be
transferred into language and which could be not
put in order and embedded in a symbolic network
of meaning.
The experiene not to be understood, the loss of
the empathic opposite is also the experience like
an attack on the representation of the inner world
with the danger of psychotic disintegration.
This can to lead the so-called identification
with the agressor, since the perpetrator is the
only object still available (the perpetrator as
malignant self-object, Kohut 1971).
The occupation with the processes of
symbolisation and their desturbaces can also be
a meaningful attempt to understand the arising
of violence between cultures.
The collapse of any culture in the holocaust finds
his core in the so-called Auschwitz-rule which
quotes Primo Levi: “There exists no question of
“‘why’”.
This stays for the ban, not to enter into a dialog
and to face questions. Nothing is appreciated,
nothing is confirmed so there is also nothing
to say.
The clinical experience in the treatment with
traumatised patients shows that the process
of constructing and reconstructing creates a
new spiritual structure in the analysis if there
is a therapeutical work alliance according
to that what Winnicotts called “the holding
environment”.
Here, I would like to mention
the concept
of André Green the “dead mother complex”
which makes a new access to the integration
of the deathdriveconcept into the current
psychoanalytical discussion possible. Also group
phenomena get better understandable by this..
André Green speaks about the fact that such
patients shall be treated in double regard:
“One must give the contents into a container and
give the container contents.”
I am very sure that we are very near to the topic
of our Studyday with this thought of André
Green.
The container and the contents of this container
must have to do something with the hope.
The loss of contents and the damage of the
container must have to do something with the
loss of confidence in groups.
Once again, to understand this double function
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analytique avec des patients Borderline.
Aussi chez ces malades, un dérangement de la
capacité de la symbolisation est dans le premier
plan. La recherche sur une compréhension de
celui-ci, qui a lieu dans ce processus, me semble
très utile à la compréhension des phénomènes
interculturelles. Pour Lacan, le traumatisme
signifiait une expérience pas assimilable qui
s’oppose au symbolisation dans la langue, qui
ne fut pas transformée dans une langue et qui put
ne pas être rangée et être intégrée dans un réseau
symbolique et significant.
L’expérience de ne pas etre compris, la perte du
vis-à-vis empathique est aussi en même temps
comme une attaque contre la répresentaion du
monde intérieur avec le danger de la dégradation
psychotique.Ca peut mèner à lìdentification
avec l’agresseur car le coupable est le seul objet
qui est encore disponible (le coupable comme
malin selfobjet, Kohut, 1971).
L’occupation avec les processus de la
symbolisation et de ses dérangements produit
peut-être une tentative sensée de comprendre
aussi mieux làpparaître de la violence entre des
cultures.
L’effondrement de toute culture dans l’holocauste
trouve son noyau en “ norme d` Auschwitz ”,
qui cite Primo Levi: “Ici néxiste pas de
‘pourquoi’”.
Celle-ci répond à l’interdiction, qu’il peut ne pas
entrer un dans conversation, dans un dialogue et
de poser des questions. Rien n’est reconnu, ne
pas confirmé, ne rien à dire non plus.
L’expérience clinique dans le traitement
des patients traumatisés nous montre que le
processus de construction et reconstruction cré
une nouvelle structure psychique dans l’analyse,
si une alliance de travail thérapeutique dans le
sens “de lènvironnement tenant” (Winnicott)
s`était développé. À cette place cite le concept
d’André Green qui nous permet un nouveau accès
à l’intégration à la discussion psychanalytique
actuelle du concetpt Thanatos, le “complexe
de la mère morte”. Les phénomènes de groupe
deviennent ainsi aussi mieux compréhensibles.
André Green parle que l’on doit travailler avec de
tels patients du double point de vue :
“On doit donner les contenus à un conteneur et
au conteneur de contenus.”
Je suis très sûr que avec cette pensée de Green
nous sommes très proche au sujet de notre
Studydays.
Le conteneur et les contenus doivent avoir
quelque chose à faire avec l’espoir. La perte de
contenus et la détérioration du conteneur doivent
of contents and container better, it is worthwhile
to study the last work of Freud in which he
develops a big outline about his understanding
of culture: “Totem and Taboo”, “The man
Moses and the monotheism”, “The discomfort in
the culture, Das Unbehagen in der Kultur”, are
sources of deeper understanding of intercultural
processes.
Since we have begun to reflect the crisis of
our association , the function of agression,
destruction and hate in connection with the
evolution of culture became very painfully
clear.
Malcolm Pines had pointed out this
in his
welcoming adress to our last Studyday.
In different working groups of our association
we came to the conclusion to study more the
meaning of the european religions for cultural
identity.
Unfortunately, psychoanalysis like other
sciences had not realised that the great european
religions seemed to be much more without
illusion concerning the pecable predisposition
of the human beeing.
All great religions are founded in violence. A
murder is in all three great religions at the first
beginning. The sacred rituals contain instructions
which serve the mastering of violence.
The great religions are build on the ritual of
the sacrifuce. From this taboos are developed,
restrictions and forms for the renunciation. All
these cultures which have arisen from these
religions center themselves around two essential
taboos which hold this cultures together: the
incest taboo and the killing taboo of a member in
the same culture.
Incest and patricide are symptoms for cultural
desintegration. If cultural cohesion gets brittle,
the social starts to dissolve itself, accusations
appear from the “ödipal type”.
Those who know the history of our association
will understand this connection between the
structural crisis of the association and the
processes of the last years in which in some
aspects appeared to be an quite archaic one.
Scientific thinking is a form the “ to make
oneself alien “ of these archaic and magical ways
of thinking. It must always be gained newly
without denial the violence of these magical
ways of thinking . Will talks about a permanent
mourning process of separation which keeps the
memory of our inner world and of our past live
at the same time.
The mental formation of structure from the
impulse of destruction, the fear of it and the
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EATGA - AEATG
avoir quelque chose à faire avec la perte de
confiance en groupes.
Pour comprendre mieux cette fonction double
de contenu et de conteneur, cela vaut la peine
d’étudier encore une fois les derniers articles
de Freud. Là, il développe une grande ébauche
sur sa compréhension de la culture. “Totem à et
tabou”, “L’homme de Moïse et le monothéisme”,
“L’embarras (Unbehagen) dans la culture” sont
des sources très profond à la compréhension du
processus interculturel.
Quand on a commencé de penser sur la crise
de dans l’Assoziation européene (AETGA), la
signification de làgression, de la déstructivité
et de la haine dans le processu de la fomation
culturelle nous est devenue douloureusement
clair. Malcolm Pines avait fait remarquer cela
dans son discours de bienvenue à notre dernier
Studyday. Dans les groupes de travail differentes
de notre accociation, la signification des religions
européennes était devenue plus claire .
La psychanalyse n’avait malheureusement pas vu
que les grandes religions européennes s’avèrent
sans illusion au sujet de la disposition paisible des
hommes. Toutes les grandes religions se justifient
dans la violence. Un meurtre est dans toutes les
trois grandes religions au début. Les rituels
saints contiennent des instructions qui servent la
maîtrise la violence. Toutes les grandes religions
se construisent sur le rituel du sacrifice. Ils
développant de cela des tabous, limites et formes
le renoncement de pulsion. Toutes les cultures qui
résultent de ces religions se centrent autour de
deux tabous essentiels qui tiennent cette culture
ensemble : le tabou d’inceste et cela du tabou de
ne pas tuer un membre de la même culture.
L’inceste et le parricide sont des symptômes des
crises culturelles. Si les cohésions culturelles
deviennent cassantes, le social commence à se
résoudre, des accusations se forment du “type
ödipale”. Celui-ci, qui connaisse l’histoire de
notre Association, comprendra ce contexte entre la
crise structurelle de l’Association des dernières
années et les processus dans notre Assoziation
qui semblaient assez archaïques.
Penser scientifiquement est une forme de “se
faire comme un étranger ” de ces formes de
penser archaïques et magiques. Il doit être obtenu
toujours de nouveau, sans que le pouvoir de
ces formes de penser magiques est renié. Will
parle d’un processus de deuil permanent de la
séparation qui tient le souvenir de notre monde
intérieur et de notre passé vivant.
Le processus de la formation des structures
psychique mène à lìntégration de l’impulsion
feelings of guilt is prerequisite for the integration
of aggressions.
What is described in the psychoanalytical
literature as a “manic compensation” is the
opposite (Hinselwood 89).
The damages are minimized or projected, we
as the EATGA have primarily transferred these
destructive parts into the past of the generations
before us.
At the latest the events of the wars in Yugoslavia
and the events of 11.9 have shown us how fast
these can come back to us.
Rituals and social regulations are something like
collective containers which made transformation
processes possible.
On the return flight from Nizza where we had
prepared this Studyday I read the speech Imre
Kertez has given on occasion of the awarding of
the literature Nobel prize in 2002.
I would like to use the introduction to this
Studyday to give my voice for some of his
thoughts because I think that he has a essential
contribution to the topic of our studyday :
Imre Kertez. Heureka 2002
“One uses to say about me, I have only one
topic: I am the holocaust writer. I have nothing
to object to it.
I have never tried to regard the problem area
described as the holocaust as something like an
unsovable conflict between Germans and Jews;
I have never thought he is approximately the
latest chapter of the Jewish history of suffering
which has logically followed on the previous
touchstones; I have never seen the holocaust
as a so-called single gaffe of the history as a
pogrom exceeding all earlier dimensions as the
precondition for the rise of the Jewish state. I
have recognized in the Holocaust the situation of
the human beeing , the final point at which the
European human beeing has arrived after two
thousand years of ethical and moral culture.
The Roman Catholic Hungarian poet Janos
Pilinszky has described this difficult situation
perhaps most exactly, calling the holocaust as
unite ,, scandal „ ; and he meant quite obviously
the fact with that Auschwitz has happened in
the Christian cultural area and therefore is
insurmountable for the metaphysical spirit.
Old Prophecies talk about it, that God is dead.
It is undisputed that we are left to us ourselves
after Auschwitz. We must create our own values,
day for day and by that continual one but
invisible ethical work which brings these values
to the light perhaps one day and raises to a new
European culture.
How ever; this what has found his expression
21
EATGA - AEATG
à la destruction, la peur et le sentiment de
culpabilité. Le contraire de cela est ce qui est
décrit dans la littérature psychanalytique comme
“rédemption maniaque” (Hinselwood 89). Les
détériorations sont minimisées ou sont projetées,
dans notre Assoziation européenne (AETGA),
nous avons déplacé ces parts destructives dans le
passé aux générations précedants. Au plus tard
les événements des guerres en Yougoslavie et les
événements du 11.9. nous avons montrés à quel
point les contenus repoussés nous rejoignent vite
de nouveau. Le processus douloureux à l’intérieur
de notre Assozcation a laissé apparaître une
nouvelle espace psychique. Nous discuterons
d’une série de règlements professionnels et
éthiques à l’assamblée générale dimanche.
Le rituel et les règlements sociaux sont quelque
chose comme des récipients collectifs qui
permessent des processus de transformation.
Sur le vol retour de Nice où nous avons préparé
ce Studyday, j’ai lu ce que l’Imre Kertez avait
écrit pour la raison de l’attribution du prix Nobel
de littératre en 2002. Je voudrais profiter de ses
pensées pour notre Studyday car je pense qu’il
apporte l’essentiel au sujet de notre jour.
Imre Kertez: Heureka 2002
“On a l’habitude de dire sur moi, que je
n’ai qu’un sujet: que je sois un écrivain du
holocauste. Je n’ai rien à y objecter.
Je n’ai jamais essayé de considérer le cercle des
problèmes nommé l´holocauste comme quelque
chose comme un conflit insoluble entre des
Allemandes et des Juifs; je n’ai jamais cru qu’il
soit le plus jeune chapitre de la histoire de la
souffrance juife qui ait suivi logiquement sur les
examens précédents ; je ne l’ai jamais vu comme
gaffe prétendue unique de l’histoire, comme
une progrom dépassant dans sa dimension tous
les plus précoces pogroms, comme la condition
préalable pour l’origine de l’État juif. J’ai
reconnue dans l`holocauste la situation humaine
, le terminus auquel l´homme européenne est
arrivée après deux mille ans de culture éthique
et morale.
Peut-être le poète hongarien catholique Janos
Pilinsky a indiqué cette situation difficile le
plus exactement, en appellant cette situation un
‘scandale’; et avec ca, il voulait dire le fait que
que sèst passé dans le cercle de culture chrétien,
et que par conséquent, soit insurmontable pour
l’esprit métaphysique.
Les anciennes prophéties parlent de cela, que
le Dieu soit mort. Le fait est incontestable, que
nous nous sommes laissés nous-même après
Auschwitz. Nous devons créer nos valeurs nousmêmes, jour après jour et à travers ce travail
éthique continuel, mais cependant invisible, on
in the ‘Endlösung and the universe of the
concentration camps’, the final solution, cannot
be misunderstood . The only possibility of
surviving and keeping creative power consists
that we recognize this point of zero in the
‘Endlösung’. In the depth of great understanding
even if they are based on invincible catastrophes
there is always something of the most excellent
of all European values. This is a moment of
liberty, this as Surplus, which has an enriching
influence on our life. It brings us the true fact of
our existence and our true responsibility for it
to our consciousness.
And this is undeniably fact if the holocaust has
some influenc of creating culture in the meantime,
so he can do this only with the aim of the spirit
of the compensation ‘Wiedergutmachung’ and
catharsis .
I is my opinion that, in confrontation with
the traumatic effect of Auschwitz, I will touch
the basic questions of the capacity of life and
the creative power of today’s human beeings;
this means, thinking about Auschwitz, I think
paradoxically more about the future than
about the past”.
peut créer ces valeurs d’un jour qui arriveront
peut-être à une nouvelle culture européenne.
Cela, quoi dans la solution finale, ‘Endlösung’,
et l’univers des camps de concentration a trouvé
son expression, on ne peut pas malcomprendre.
La seule possibilité de survivre et de nous garder
la créative consiste que nous reconnaissons ce
point de zéro. Dans la profondeur de grandes
découvertes, même si ils se basent sur des
catastrophes invincibles, on trouve toujours
quelque chose du valeur l’européen le plus
excellent. C’est un moment de la liberté, comme
un Surplus entre dans notre vie en enrichissant
cette vie. Il nous fait conscience le vrai fait de
notre existence et de notre responsabilité pour
cette éxitence.
Il est un fait indéniablement, que entre-temps
l’holocauste a quelque chose a faire avec la
création culturelle.
Il peut faire cela avec l’objectif de créer
les traces de l’esprit de la rédemption, de la
catharsis.
Si je réfléchis à l’effet traumatisant d’Auschwitz,
je pousse avec mon avis sur les questions
fondamentales de la capacité de la vie etde la
force créative humaine d d’aujourd’hui; cela
signifie que en réfléchissant à Auschwitz je
réfléchis peut-être plus bientôt paradoxalement
sur l’avenir que sur le passé”.
Program of the 2003 Study Day
Friday, March 7th 2003
5.30 h p.m. Registration of participants
6.00 h – 8.00 h p.m. Earl Hopper Conference on “The dilemma between illusion and hope:
collapse of trust in groups and society”
8.00 h p.m “Aperitivo”
Saturday, March 8th 2003
After the President’s introduction, participants will join the group they have chosen:
a) Group 1: “The dilemma between illusion and hope. The collapse of trust in groups and
society”. Conducted by Giovanna Cantarella.
b) Group 2: “Supervision-intervision in a transcultural setting”. Conducted by Marlene Spero.
9.15 h a.m President’s introduction
9.30 h - 11. 00 h a.m. First discussion groups’ session
11 h – 11.30 h a.m. Coffee break
11.30 h - 1.00 h p.m. Second discussion groups’ session
1.00 h-2.00 h p.m. Lunch
2.00 h - 3.30 h p.m. Third discussion goups’ session
3.30 h - 4.00 h p.m. Coffee break
4.00 h - 5.30 h p.m. Plenary session conducted by President Kurt Husemann
5.30 h - 6.30 h p.m. Brainstorming session conducted by Vice President Ugo Corino
8,00 p.m. Social Dinner
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EATGA - AEATG
London EATGA-AEATG Study Day, March 8th, 2003 - The dilemma
between illusion and hope. The collapse of trust in groups and society.
Giovanna
Giovanna Cantarella
Cantarella
The Study Day is taking place in London in the very moment when Iraq war is at the door. The only
space left for diplomaic negotiations seems illusionary.
In order to legitimate war the public opinion has been convinced that good and evil are split and
polarised, it goes without saying that everyone is persuaded of belonging to the good ones.
(This of course is only a description of the psychological situatuation, without examing pro and
againts war elements). The projection of evil on Saddam Hussein is of course well supported by his
dispotic regime which any one agrees should be abolished. strongly doubting that democracy can
be imposed by force.
In the first session participants to the intercultural group in EATGA AEATG study day shared
common anxieties in the common perception that winds of war were at the door. One could
“touch” the sense od extreme danger, of fear for the present, for the future that participants
brought concretely inside the group. The group atmosphere was overburdened by the effort of
trying to cope, to react, to contain what seems unsustenable. No mental group space seemed left
for thinking. Puget theorisation came to mind (though applied to a very different situation: the
argentinian context under the military dictature). When the political context is so unsafe there is no
space left for objectifying, for taking the necessary distance for being able to reflect, to think. On
March 8, 2003 investing in group discussion seemed useless.
“Dinosaurs” says one participants “... we are so willing to give them to our children as toys....
maybe because we think that our species is going to estinguish”.
As it happens in difficult times when group resonates of outer strong menaces group interventions
followed ordinately one another in a very respectful and ordinately way. The care not to hurt, not
to interrupt, not to damage was touchable.
At the beginning of the group process a theoretical input to connect the previous day’s lecture from
Earl Hopper and stimulate the discussion had been planned by the EATGA - AEATG Board.
Silvana Koen had offered the group an immaginary dialogue between Cain and Abel. They
mutually complained and protested for not having avoided the murder, for not having trusted
teir specific resources and relational competences. Abel, due to his brotherwood position, had
experience and competence in gealousy, he was born already being brother. Not so Cain, being first
born. Abel could have helped Cain to understand brotherwood . They had resources they has spoilt.
Why not reflect more and abandon our certainties... if even God was doubting of the justice of his
punishments to humans?
But while, at the opening of the first session the group couldn’t immediately take advantage of
Silvana Koen “strong” stimulus it came soon the moment when the group caught it both in its
content and in its emotional “injection” of hope in dialogue and trust in human potentialities even in
the darkest moments. Brotherwood, tolerance, dialogue are always there, ready to be “rediscovered”
and “replayed” for avoiding ruptures and invent possible solutions, for contrasting uncouscious
introjections of power issues as Hopper had illustrated us.
Then something happened: a bell rang and a person asked to come in. It took some time to understand
that he meant to participate to the Tavistock (next door to the study day venue) workshop: “not
learning from experience”. This fact made suddendly feel the group connected to a wider consonant
23
EATGA - AEATG
world outside, no longer completely isolated.
The second session witnesses a changement. The group let more freely emerge differences in
opinions toward the war. Step by step, slowly, different attitudes, feelings due to present conflictual
situatuation emerge. Power issues, seniority issues inhibiting the younger ones, cultural, historical
differences toward the legitimation of war come to the foreground.
“It was difficult to live together (con-vivere) in the “cauldron Jugoslavia, said one participant, as
it is here in the intercultural group with differences and conflicts among us”.
In the third session the group seeks a way for emerging from confusion. One after the other group
members spontaneously start to narrate their personal story of intercultural differences within
their family. After the initial “Italians look all alike...”. Each one offers to others his/her personal
“cauldron” faced in his/her own story. The evident positive outcome of tolerant combination of
cultures in the family stories give an impulse to the trust in personal and group resources. The
intial “collapse of trust” seems to leave the door open to the hope of having a safe container
for expressing the group conflict on the fact that the Board had chosen Ugo Corino as observer
though he didn’t understand English which is pratically always spoken by the group: this fact has
offered the group the possibility of an open conflict among members: Some approving and others
disaproving the Board choice. Some believing it as a sign of understimation of the importance of
verbal understanding and others trusting the group process and the importance of the non verbal
communication.
Thus the group process has gone back to EATGA-AEATG as a cultural container of differences ing
by the other. Recognising the richness of not denying difference and being able to take advantage
of the process of adapting to an intercultural context as EATGA-AEATG has beeing offering since
its birth.
24
EATGA - AEATG
Supervision - intervision in a transcultural setting.
Marlene Spero
The aim of the supervision group was to reflect on the theme of the study day, “The dilemma
between hope and illusion; the collapse of trust in groups and society” and to link this with the
members clinical experience.There were nine participants and the common language of the group
was French.An initial case study was presented to stimulate ideas and thinking. In addition a parallel
trans-cultural process was also observed in the group. The following are brief notes of the three
sessions high-lighting some of the trans-cultural themes that emerged.
The case study was of a Yugoslavian girl who had joined a therapy group because of depression
and an eating disorder. She was living in Germany at the time of her treatment.Her parents were
Yugoslavian, father a Christian and mother a Catholic who had moved to Germany where the patient
was born.The marriage broke down and the parents separated.The patient returned to Yugoslavia
as if in search of some lost illusion of symbiosis (Yugoslavia being the good mother) where she
married a Serb.She was 17 years old. The couple moved back to Germany where she found herself a
job but felt “pushed out” by her fellow workers because of her Yugoslavian nationality.She felt very
isolated.She also found out that her brother was having difficulties with the law and had committed
theft.During her time in the group she went to Bermuda for a scuba diving holiday where for a whole
week her symptoms disappeared.She spoke of diving into the deep blue water and having to descend
with a partner who for safety reasons was connected to her with a rope. It was as if she had retrieved
the sought after symbiotic relationship which released her from her symptoms and depression.
The discussion focussed on the following:
a.repetition compulsion – the wish to repeat the parent’s trauma and the re-playing of the trauma
b.the projection of hatred onto the outsider by the external environment both locally and at a societal
level
c. the internal conflicts of being an outsider
d. the victim and the perpetrator – both roles were re- enacted in the family, the patient being the
victim and the brother the perpetrator
e. the question of respect – respect for oneself, for the other and from society
f. the need to be “anchored” (Hopper),
g. balancing both the internal psyche and the external world
h. the importance of language and symbolisation
i. themes of illusion, disillusion, the need to mourn and the sense of hopelessness
j. the perverse state of mind – the collapse of illusion and boundaries – (Lacan, Chasseguet
–Smirgel)
k. pathology versus culture – how does one differentiate between the two?
The second case was about a group of Eastern European women living in the UK -”they couldn’t
catch a bus to come to the group”. The presenter spoke of their depression and sense of hopelessness,
their conflicts with their traditional culture, their place as women in their culture, their domination
by the men, their submissiveness, their inability to argue, their guilt and shame.
The reverence for the older generation was explored. She continued by saying that the women
25
EATGA - AEATG
showed no hostility until the day when she was absent. The following week the women were
violent; it was as if trust had been broken and all hope lost. The feelings of guilt were projected
onto the therapist.
The third case was about survivors from the Congo who had been badly traumatised during the
war.The presenter spoke of the significant differences between groups, the experience of trauma
and how this can be re-enacted in the group. Each of the group members had been violently
traumatised and colluded in a silence as if to deny the trauma because ofthe shamethat was felt.
They referred to themselves as wives, daughters or sons of husbands or parents rather than using
their own; it was as if they had no separate identity of their own.
The final case was of a Japanese man who was living in Spain. His wife’s brother had suggested he
joined a therapy group. He had an alcoholic problem which he was unable to talk about in the group
because of the shame he associated with the problem. He was of a “noble heritage”, his father came
from a line of samurai and his mother was a distant relative of the Emperor.He would recall dreams
and times when as a child he would play with a samurai sword swinging it around and cutting a cat
into three.His house had samurai relics on the walls – the innate violence was very present. It was as
if the culture of violence had been transmitted trans-generationally. He attended the group regularly
but the conductor felt that he had no rapport with the patient – he couldn’t connect. The patient
left the group and his wife after two year’s, went back to Japan and then began to export Japanese
goods to Spain. He committed suicide two years later. The discussion focussed on the patients
sense of shame and guilt and his recognition that suicide was a respectable death for someone with
a shaming alcoholic problem. He could never win – he would either feel shame or guilt or both.
The group was also told that he had been born in l943, two years before Hiroshima and was living
in Hiroshima at the time of the bomb. Did he feel the guilt of survival?
Some of the trans-cultural issues were played out in the supervision group. The Spaniard who
couldn’t speak French, felt himself to be an outsider and excluded.He became reliant on the
woman sitting next to him to translate everything into French and she in turn became angry at his
dependency on her. The two were sitting together as if to represent the deep sea diver helping the
Yugoslavian patient to survive. A sense of hopelessness was very present as was the frustration
of not being able to hear, to understand or to “know”. One of the presenters said that despite her
coming from the same Eastern European background as her patients, there were things she could
not understand about them. She had already made the transition several years earlier, leaving the
“other” and the culture behind. The racism and hatred that had been presented in the case material
resonated with differences in the group between the Germans and Jews, the Americans and
Moslems; the nature of these projections was explored.
26
EATGA - AEATG
EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF TRANSCULTURAL GROUP ANALISYS
ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE POUR L’ANALYSE TRANSCULTURELLE DE GROUPE
siège social: Burgerlijke vernnootschap onder vorm van een bvba - Willy Mestdagt
Lagrou - Bruggestraat 146 8830 - Gits (Belgium)
Editorial - Giovanna Cantarella
Message from / Nouvelle de - Kurt Husemann
Program of Social Dreaming
Introduction to “Social Dreaming” and report of two workshops in Raissa and
Clarice Town (Footnotes) - Claudio Neri
“Group: Illusion and hope. The collapse of trust in groups and
society” - Introduction by President Kurt Husemann
The dilemma between illusion and hope. The collapse of trust
in groups and society - Giovanna Cantarella
Supervision - Intervision in a transcultural setting - Marlene Spero
MEMBERS’ ADDRESSES
EATGA - AEATG

Newsletter

Transcription

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