Seminar 6

Sat September 21st, 12;30 pm- 4;30 pm UK time

Seminar Leader: Teresa von Sommaruga Howard- Author, Architect, Systemic Family Therapist, Group Analyst and founder of Large Group Dialogue Course, Roffey Park UK.

My talk will center on my recent experience of a workshop in Frankfurt: The Past in the Present: Thinking Group Analytically – The German Jewish Legacy. Central to their studies was their intention to devote themselves to connecting the theory and history of socialism with the labour movement. It was a unique gathering of German, mostly Jewish historians and sociologists, who were concerned with rethinking Marxism, its praxis as a form of self-creating action, and discovering the connection between political authoritarianism and the beliefs of individuals while seeking to understand the structural dynamics of society. They wanted to confront the prevailing social and political conditions with their unrealized possibilities within the context of the rise of National Socialism. It was a context that is not unlike that of today with the rise of the extreme right.The workshop was the brainchild of Thomas Mies who had long been concerned with the loss of the legacy of the Frankfurt Constellation to Group Analysis when Foulkes was forced to flee Germany in April 1933. The title of his introduction is explanatory, SH Foulkes and his formative background: Interdisciplinary studies in the human sciences at the Foundation University Frankfurt am Main and its associated scientific institutions 1914-1933.

The concept of a constellation is an idea that comes from German philosopher,Dieter Henrich, who thought that attributing the development of ideas to ‘self-sufficient heroic figures of thought’ does not adequately describe how ideas emerge. He proposed instead that ideas should be attributed to philosophical constellations that emerge from ‘thick’ interrelations between persons, theories,problems, and documents along with face-to-face communication and joint presence. It is a way of thinking that fits perfectly with the richness that emerged in Frankfurt during the 1920s and 30s and was so cruelly shut own. Mies then asks,… what subject would be more urgently in need of such orientated research than the Frankfurt constellation, whose brutal destruction by the Nazis is unparalleled in modern European intellectual history? And how much more urgent is it for a newreading of Foulkes, whose thinking was fundamentally influenced by this destruction and whose greatest fruitfulness is shown not in what he was able to work out, but in the numerous and promising germs of thought that can be found in his work on careful reading. I will describe the ideas of some of the main protagonists to show how they formed the foundation matrix for Group Analysis and what emerged from that extremely creative period.

Teresa von Sommaruga Howard is the daughter of a German Jewish refugee father, and although born in England, was an immigrant as a small child and grew up in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her professional background mirrors her diverse personal background. She is an architect, systemic family therapist, and group analyst, mainly focusing on the long-term effects of socio-political trauma. She has written and published extensively about all aspects of her work and has recently published a book co-edited with David Clark entitled, The Journey Home: Emerging from the Shadows from the Past. It includes twenty stories describing different second-generation experiences. The publisher is Peter Lang.

EPIC International Seminars 2024

The Moderator, Protected Space, or Thought Police

In a world riven with fear, war, famine, disease, dictatorships, selfish capitalism, torture and human rights abuses, the terrorising, murder, and displacement of populations, and the stockpiling and spreading of weapons of mass destruction. All this with increasing unanimity among scientists and environmental experts that our lifestyles have planted us on the edge of global catastrophe.

In this important series of monthly seminars, we will visit psychotherapists via Zoom from around the globe who will share their own experiences of the conditions which vulnerable people turn to them for help. Most importantly, they attempt to provide spaces for help under such apparent unfavorable conditions. The seminars are mostly on a Saturday and usually on the third Saturday of each month from 12:30 pm to 04:30 pm UK time.

Schedule of the day

UK Time

12:30- 13:00 Coffee and Meet

13:00- 14:30 Interactive Seminar - Teresa

14:30 - 15:00 Poem Break

15:00- 16:30 Experiential Group- Mike Tait Group Analyst, Drama Therapist UKCP HPCP

We will do our best to keep to the advertised program but we may need to make occasional changes

EPIC, The Experiential Psychotherapy Initiative Community works as a cooperative of psychotherapists involved in helping health professionals and others benefit from psychodynamic ways of understanding

Please address any enquiries about this or other EPIC events to series convenor Marcus Price at epicentre8@gmail.com