Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

Newsletter – Autumn 2017 99
The XIII Group Analytic Conference in St
Petersburg, 26 – 28 May 2017
By Vivian de Villiers
I recently attended another interesting and stimulating Group Analytic
Conference in St Petersburg where we shared painful experiences and
also laughter. The topic of the conference was, “Love and Aggression
of the Group and in the Group”. The need for mourning to reconnect
with love was one of the many issues that came out of a number of
excellent presentations and discussions.
Other visitors and I were warmly welcomed and it was really
interesting to meet group analysts from different parts of Russia.
Russia is a huge country and I find it difficult to comprehend the sheer
size of it. Mind you, so did Napoleon. Some people travelled long
distances to attend the conference.
For days before and during the conference I was preoccupied
with the idea of learning from mistakes and that a mistake can’t be
planned. The challenge is to recognise the learning opportunity
presented by a mistake and to avoid being disabled by the narcissistic
wounding that accompanies it. I was not disappointed during this
conference. It is, of course, easier to deal with someone else’s
mistakes, however I also had a chance to make sense of my own and
to see it as an opportunity to learn.
We started on the Friday evening with two sessions of “Role
Analysis”, conducted by Hanni Biran from Israel. These two sessions
were arranged in an inner circle of eight people and the rest of those
present in an outer circle observing the method being demonstrated in
the inner circle. The process aroused some angry feelings in the outer
circle with people feeling left out. Some felt that the associations were
more about the staff member conducting the demonstration than the
person who had the role analysis. It was also felt that it was too
exposing of the person who was undergoing the role analysis. Over
the course of the conference, repair of these ruptures took place with
an acknowledgement that the group needed more explanation about
the process and technique of role analysis, before the demonstration
took place. The more direct way of expressing emotions in the Russian
context was mentioned and the value of the demonstration
acknowledged.
There were two social dreaming sessions, one each morning
conducted by Marina Mojovic from Belgrade and Hanni Biran from
Israel, respectively.