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Venue:
The Institute of Group Analysis, 1 Daleham Gardens, London NW3 5BY
Programme Details:
Where is the moral compass that encourages reflection as a basis for decision making when world leaders are elected on lies, when decisions on the scarce resources of the Covid-era were based on lies, and when the UK left Europe, our available information was based on lies?
Together, we will explore how we experience ourselves and each other in groups — particularly in response to the shifting cultural and social landscape of our time. In a post-COVID, destabilised world, what is now expected of us as group analysts and facilitators? How do we respond to conscious and unconscious projections related to authority, charisma, and narcissism? And how might our capacity to meet the needs of our groups be shaped by these projections?
Our next GAN London workshop focuses on reciprocity and exchange in groups. Marcel Mauss said that the spirit of the gift compels the recipient to make a return. Why do we offer gifts and what is it like to receive them? Are gifts altruistic or just a way of reinforcing power differentials?
Turmoil began when the pandemic hit and we were propelled into changing our group boundaries by meeting online which affected our ways of communicating.
A couple of years on, as we move out of Covid restrictions, we become increasingly vulnerable to other survival anxieties that we have little control over. Our group analytic perspective is that ‘the social permeates to the core’. How then do these external global anxieties affect our building and maintenance of a therapeutic space?
In group analytic therapy we aim towards increasingly open and honest communication and thereby seek to deepen our understanding of self and others.
The socio-cultural norms shaping what can be articulated vary across different cultures and political systems.
In this workshop, we will explore issues arising when group analytic cultures conflict with home cultures. Examples from work in an African country and with a Turkish immigrant group in the U.K. will be presented to stimulate discussion.
We live in a society that erects walls to keep people out and turns boundaries into barriers. We often imagine solid external things in which we locate our subjectivity on one side or the other – binary thinking. In this workshop, we propose to think together about the current political social context alongside our inner landscape and with the help of poetry, music and pictures create space to ponder on our doubts.
In the current state of social incohesion and anxiety, might we wish for a magical leader such as the Pied Piper?
In this workshop we propose to think together about the state of things both politically and socially in the context of the contagion versus the containment of anxiety.
In the current political situation, it seems essential that we ask some probing questions: Is working as a Group Analyst or as a Psychotherapist a political action? Was the decision to train as a Group Analysts a political one? What is Group Analysis in relation to society? Does Group analysis promote a sense of citizenship? Our workshop aims to promote a dialogue about these and similar questions in order to explore the connections and differences between the Personal and the Political.
The symbolic role of the father has been under-emphasized in the group-analytic literature especially by contrast to the prolific reference to the symbolic value of the mother connected with Foulkes’ concept of the matrix. This workshop explores the role of the notion of father in psycho-dynamic groups. It brings the symbol of the father into play in an essentially relational, normative and benign pro-social way which is contrasted with an individualistic patriarchal and potentially punitive motive.
As intimacy becomes increasingly hard to find and desire more and more confusing, our group members struggle. They struggle with the shame of loneliness, secret thoughts and anxieties about how acceptable they are. Pornography and Internet relationships, online dating and social network sites appear safer than dealing with actual people but leave a longing and awareness of something missing. This workshop is a day in which to explore both the pleasures and difficulties for us as group members and clinicians. We welcome colleagues and professionals who are interested in exploring the dilemmas posed by the topic.
For some time we have been concerned about the promise of friendship offered by the internet and the loneliness, anxiety plus sense of failure experienced by many of our group members who use this medium. It also seems that many of us, as well as our group members, spend quite a lot of time in front of screens. We seem to expect instant replies to our messages or worry that we have been overlooked when there is a delay. In this workshop we will explore the relationship between group analytic network and an internet social network and how the internet impacts on our practice?
….a fig leaf for Therapists….
Booking:
Booking is not available for past workshops, please see our “Upcoming Workshops” for more information on future events.
Fee:
Professional £55.00
Trainee £35.00
(GANLondon Members & Associates, no payment required, but you must still book your place by following the link above please)
