Transmission of Trauma: Response to Lecture by Gerhard Wilke

Although the large group is a mandatory part of the Institute of Group Analysis London Qualifying Course, its history and theory have been absent from the curriculum. This fringe status can be seen as a reflection of the challenge the large group offers the analyst—trainee and practitioner alike. It exposes structures of power, reveals issues around race and gender, and brings historical trauma to light. The question is, are we willing to look within? My ‘journey into the wilderness’ is a step towards an answer. As such, this article is framed as field research, focusing on the lived experience of the large group, as well as revisiting its past. It moves between two paradigms of practice—developmental large groups in training institutes and discrete large groups at conferences—and seeks to define the purpose of this ritual, as well as set new ground lines for ethical practice. Through the use of large group material, I trace the theoretical language of koinonia, fellowship, dialogue, outsight and equivalence, and exemplify learnings around the mechanisms of projective processes. I suggest that a projection must be felt before it can be returned, but in such a multi-person setting, ‘countertransference’ does not do this work of integration justice. Finally, I address containment and introduce the concept of reverie/participation. Through this model the large group grants us an experience of embeddedness, and awakens our responsibility for the challenges of history making, and social change.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaching the mountain: A journey into the wilderness of large group thinking

Reicher¹

2020

“…The participants of the group become empathic witnesses to the horrifying experiences he/she once endured all alone. (Dealing with post-traumatic situations in group analysis is discussed, from various aspects, especially in the last decade: Blackwell, 2005; Einhorn, 2007; Klímová, 2007; Gantt and Hopper, 2008; Doran and Punter, 2009; Kleinot, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Traumatic Victimhood and Group Analytic Therapy: Intersubjectivity, Empathic Witnessing and Otherness

Berman¹

2014

Victimhood is part of the field of treatment of patients with posttraumatic disorder. Recovery processes may occur only within environments that recognize the suffering the person has endured. I refer to 'post-traumatic victimhood' as a self-state in the sense of the concept of multiple selves. I suggest that during the post-traumatic recovery process, the victimhood self-state may be fixated as a sub-character of a person or sometimes of an entire society. From within a post-traumatic victimhood self-state a certain pattern of interpersonal behaviour emerges: claiming recognition as a victim, displacement of victimhood aggression, transforming personal suffering into domination control and suspension of concern. The group may become a healing environment for a post-traumatic patient in which he/she may feel belonging, empathic witnessing and compassion from the other participants, as well as the group conductor. Victimhood aggression in the group may be expressed as complaints and accusations against another participant, or in the form of accusing others, or a sub-group, the whole group or the conductor. Group analytic therapy may become, therefore, highly intersubjective. The emotional involvement of the conductor and the participants alike pose a therapeutic challenge. 'Neutrality' and 'objectivity' seem beyond reach. Relevant relational concepts like 'empathic witnessing', 'otherness and sameness' and their therapeutic consequences are further discussed in the article.

The white mirror: Face to face with racism in group analysis part 1—mainly theory

Aiyegbusi¹

2021

Group analysis privileges the social and political, aiming to address individual distress and ‘disturbance’ within a representation of the context it developed and persists in. Reproducing the presence and impact of racism in groups comes easily while creating conditions for reparation can be complicated. This is despite considerable contributions to the subject of racism by group analysts. By focusing on an unconscious, defensive manoeuvre I have observed in groups when black people describe racism in their lives, I hope to build upon the existing body of work. I will discuss the manoeuvre which I call the white mirror. I aim to theoretically elucidate the white mirror. I will argue that it can be understood as a vestigial trauma response with roots as far back as the invention of ‘race’. Through racialized sedimentation in the social unconscious, it has been generationally transmitted into the present day. It emerges in an exacerbated way within the amplified space of analytic groups when there is ethnically-diverse membership. I argue it is inevitable and even essential that racism emerges in groups as a manifestation of members’ racialized social unconscious including that of the conductor(s). This potentially offers opportunities for individual, group and societal reparation and healing. However, when narratives of racism are instead pushed to one side, regarded as a peripheral issue of concern only to minority black or other members of colour, I ask whether systems of segregation, ghettoization or colonization are replicated in analytic groups. This is the first of two articles about the white mirror. The second article which is also published in this issue highlights practice implications.