Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

Newsletter – Autumn 2017 45
all sense of being an outsider quickly dissipated.
As many have talked about the intimidating fact of riding a
bicycle so far seemed daunting but turned out to be quite enjoyable
after the first rain filled 11-hour marathon ride. I have fantasies of
renting a house in Potsdam and going bike riding again in the in
environs of Berlin. I will have fond memories of swimming with Joan
and Marcos.
Björn was a great leader more from the historical perspective
and the intellectual integration of East and West than his bicycling
acumen. I agree wholeheartedly that including Björn in our group
would have been a stroke of genius as exemplified by how nice it was
to have David, our civilian, in the group. I so wish that we had
integrated the Hikers and Bikers at the same hotel so that we could've
had morning and evening group meetings. It's about the only thing I
would change about our preconference grouping. My memories of
sauntering alongside a fellow bike rider until you had to move out of
the way of an oncoming marathoner, interrupting the conversation,
and allowing for another conversation to take place, is something I
look forward to at our upcoming pre-conference hike outside of
Barcelona.
In addition to the heavy lifting of the emotional toll
discussing refugees about our planet, I was inspired by the
observations I made of how open the German people are to processing
their traumas from previous world wars. I feel that the current split
politically in America is partly related to our struggle to process our
previous societal traumas including the massacre of the Indians and
the utilization of slavery. Our task as Americans is to help along this
process of acceptance of our previous traumas thus facilitating and
encouraging our citizenry to become more comfortable with the
concept of being a citizen of the planet. Let’s hope our Group
Analytic conceptualizations can be brought to this task. Greetings
from the Group Analytic Practice of Dallas.
On Bikes, Boots and Borders from Sue Lieberman, Edinburgh,
Scotland: Biker for two days Hiker for one Day
As others on both elements of the trip have described, there was a lot
of learning on this tour: of the history, of personal stories (including
those of our guide Bjorn), of the sheer physicality of the Wall’s route
and its place in divided Germany. I became very perplexed one day
when it seemed that no matter which direction we headed in, eastern
Germany was always on our left. Surely some of the time our left (ie.
west of the city) should have been western Germany? This was, of