Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

Newsletter – Autumn 2017 3
Editorial
Important the imagery we use…I have tended to talk about coming
down from the hyper-stimulating high of Berlin. I notice others talk
about resurfacing. Whatever your journey, and for all of us I’m sure,
many borders of many kinds were crossed, the fact is here we are back
home, re-installed where we belong and looking back. The forum is
alive with discussion of the large group. Was impersonal fellowship
tasted or was another opportunity wasted? Regression and polarization
have emerged as themes in need of our understanding. The question is
also being asked, should we call time on this extraordinarily difficult
and deeply challenging thing (a beast of a group) we arrange for
ourselves in our symposia? At the same time, it seems the Berlin muse
has stimulated waves of poetic vision and humour. What also seems
clear, to me at least, is that the large group stimulates discussion,
exchange and dialogue well beyond its borders.
Where I live, right now, Catalunya, the home for our next
symposium, is in a deeply polarized state, as the ‘referendum’ of the
1 st October approaches and a stand-off involving the Catalan and
Spanish governments has formed. At this moment, the situation
appears volatile and the outcome unpredictable. As the WORK begins
preparing for the next symposium in Barcelona, these events are surely
of concern and in need of our attention.
The Berlin Symposium marked a moment of change, as all
symposia usually do. GASi has many new members and a new
management committee and in this issue, we welcome the first
foreword of our new president David Glyn. Welcome David! The new
GASi website is more or less complete, including a Members Area in
which management committee work (agendas, minutes etc) will be
made available. A digital membership directory will also be prepared
and located there. It is essential that you keep track of your username
and password to gain access to these resources.
While the bulk of this issue is dedicated to reflecting back on
Berlin, there is also a couple of reports from other events held this year
of great interest: the Spring Group Days in Prague and the Group
Analytic Conference held in St Petersburg. There is also an
impassioned piece by our Czech colleague Helena Klímová, covering
a multitude of matters concerned with identity. In a very timely piece
presented in Berlin, timely because of the forthcoming GASi Winter
Workshop ‘Northfield Revisited’ to be held in January
(http://groupanalyticsociety.co.uk/winter-workshop-2018/) Cosmin
Chita takes us back to the Northfield Experiments in the light of his