Group Analytic Contexts, Issue 77, September 2017

Newsletter – Autumn 2017 75
Reflections on Berlin
By Francesca Bascialla
I attended the Symposia in Bologna, Molde and Dublin and then I
missed the next two. This year I returned and I'm very glad for the
organization we had, also in the period before the Symposium. I had
a problem with the payment of my fee, because Greece is still under
capital control and I solved it by mailing the secretary who was very
kind and comprehensive.
On practical themes, I think that it was somehow difficult to
find the room for group etc., maybe because it was a very big hotel
and we were a lot of people. I suggest for the next Symposium it will
be better to have a number and a colour for each experiential group
and a paper on the door with the names of the participants. This is our
common practice in the IGA Athens and we did the same in last
year’s Summer School (I was a member of the local organizational
committee).
The academic program was very interesting but what I really
appreciated was the more experimental approach in the workshops,
new ideas and possibilities to try something I didn’t know. I avoid
now to speak about theory. I think that the experiential group is the
better way to learn about method and technique and afterwards to
understand deeper the theory. Obviously, this is very important for
younger colleagues and those from other approaches, who are not so
familiar with experiential groups. This is the peculiarity of the
symposium and I'm not sure that they understand this. Also, I
appreciated a lot of interventions in the large group that tried to protect
the newcomers and I think we succeeded in having a meaningful large
group. Once again thank you to the committee!
Finally, how wonderful was the concert in the church, it was
an emotionally closure of the symposium. the universal language of
music unit us together.
Francesca Giuseppina Bascialla
Dr(Med)Sc, Psychiatrist and Group Analyst. OPC
and IGA Athens
basciallafran@hotmail.com