Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

100 Group-Analytic Society International - Contexts
There were ten presentations over the Saturday and the
Sunday, all chaired well with the presentations remaining within the
time boundaries, which meant that there was time for discussion after
every lecture. I found the presentations interesting and it gave me a
sense of the work done by group analysts in Russia. I also valued that
fact that every presenter asked conference attendees to respect the
confidentiality of the anonymised clients that they presented. All in all,
my sense was that the standard of practice of group analysis is high
and that there is an enthusiasm for group analysis in Russia that really
impressed me.
I won’t list the topics covered in the presentations, as it would
take up too much space and, if I list some topics of particular interest
to me, I’ll have to leave out others and that would not be a balanced
reflection, given that I felt all were interesting in their different ways.
The presentations were thirty minutes long followed by ten minutes of
discussions and questions.
There was one ninety-minute round table discussion
concerning work with teenagers who make suicide pacts on internet
sub-groups. The format of the round table discussion was that the
work with the teenagers was presented and then discussed.
The conference language was Russian and there were two
translators for those of us who can’t speak Russian. At this conference,
the same translators who translated when I attended last year were
used and I felt that they were really good at their work. They were
working all the time, not only during the formal sessions but also
during breaks, as there were relatively few people who could speak
English fluently and some people felt embarrassed by that. To me it is
about trying to understand each other rather than good grammar and I
do wish that more Russian group analysts would find a voice on the
Internet forum.
The Group Analytic Dictionary Project, that Marina Mojovic
presented, was received with enthusiasm and is another opportunity
where Russian group analysts could become more visible.
Personally, I missed not having small group sessions and
would have liked to have had at least one small group on the Saturday
and one on the Sunday. However, I can also see the dynamic
administration challenges in making this possible. At this conference,
we had the use of two halls. In one we had all the presentations and
the large groups and in the other we had our coffee breaks with pastries.
Small groups would require additional rooms. The other challenge
would be the number of translators in order not to have too many
visitors concentrated in one or two small groups.