Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

4 Group-Analytic Society International - Contexts
work managing a psychiatric word as both psychiatrist and group
analyst.
The first piece in this issue, by Teresa von Sommaruga
Howard, is a moving and deeply personal account about family
traumas, closely linked to Berlin and embedded in 20 th century history,
and how these went on to shape her own life. Teresa wrote this piece
for the June issue preparing for Berlin, unfortunately it got lost in the
system and so I extend my apologies to her for this. Nonetheless, I am
very glad to include it here. Teresa has also edited and part written
another piece in this issue, an extensive report co-written by all the
participants of the pre-symposium Bike and Hike tours. It adds up to
an extraordinary account of the experience.
I am grateful to Christer Sandahl, Di King, Anca Ditroi,
Bracha Hadar, Derek Love, Edmond Dufatanye, Kalliopi
Panagiotopoulou and Francesca Bascialla for providing us with such
a variety of perspectives on the Berlin Symposium These reports take
us right into the experience and allow access, in particular, for those
members who didn’t attend, into some of the deeper recesses of the
symposium. For my part, as the chair of the local organising
committee of the next symposium in Barcelona 2020, there is so much
to learn from these reports.
My thanks to Marcus Price for agreeing to take on the role of
editor of Contexts’ new poetry section ‘Free Associative Gifts’ and to
Elizabeta Marcos, Derek Love, Einar Gudmundsson and Marcus
himself for the first ‘Gifts’ here included. Please note Marcus’ ‘Call
for Poems’ for future editions.
Finally, in Berlin I had the pleasure to be in the same median
group as Kaoru Nishimura, editor of the Journal of Japanese Group
Psychotherapy. He has since sent me a copy of the journal and I
include the contents page of the issue (Vol. 33, No. 1, 2017) from
earlier this year.
Peter Zelaskowski