In Memory of Earl Hopper
The news of Earl Hopper’s passing on 4 November 2025 came as a profound shock. Only a few weeks earlier, he had participated as a lecturer at the Tenth International Reflective Citizens Conference in Belgrade, organised by Marina Mojović and Serbian colleagues. On that occasion, as always, he was intellectually vibrant, emotionally present, and deeply engaged with the international group-analytic community.
Our first encounter with Earl dates back to the Pre-Congress Workshops of the IAGP Congress in Rome (2009), where—together with Haim Weinberg—he conducted three morning workshop sessions on Large-Group and the Social Unconscious. It was an intense and transformative experience that left a lasting imprint on our community-oriented understanding of Group Analysis.
During the convivial evenings in Belgrade, Earl expressed his wish to strengthen further his ties with the Italian group-analytic community, whose critical depth, theoretical richness, and group-based clinical culture he greatly valued.
The study of his seminal conceptualisation of the fourth basic assumption (Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification) has long been a central formative reference for us, especially in its resonance with the setting of the GAA – Gruppo Analitico Allargato (Analytic Large Group), developed in Italy by Alice von Platen and Leonardo Ancona.
The GAA, typically structured as a workshop of seven consecutive Large Group sessions over a day and a half, extends group-analytic inquiry into wider psychosocial and institutional dimensions. Its sequential format allows participants to observe the emergence and development of Social Unconscious phenomena—including institutional unconscious dynamics and the forces associated with the fourth basic assumption—as these unfold throughout the evolving process of the group.
In the years that followed, through our involvement in GASI and through the work carried out within IL CERCHIO – Italian Association of Group Analysis (federated within COIRAG – Confederation of Italian Organizations for Analytical Research on Groups), we had the privilege of collaborating with Earl in the organisation of two international events that helped strengthen the bridge between the Italian and international group-analytic communities.
The first event, The Return of the Scapegoat: COVID Syndemic in the Unconscious Life of Groups (6 March 2021), featured a Lecture by Earl followed by a Large Group session.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE_vvYRqv3k
The second event, From Crowds to Communities in Dialogue. The Large Group in Contemporary Group Analysis (12 March 2022), saw Earl—together with Carla Penna—working as lecturer and supervisor of the staff working group.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q03Zfn7c4E
The collaborative work carried out before and after the event—particularly the extensive post-event staff reflections that resulted in the collective production of the published report—revealed much of Earl’s way of working: attentive, reflective, and consistently committed to fostering shared dialogue. Engaging with him in these staff processes meant encountering a steady and respectful practice, oriented toward the formation of a collective analytic perspective.
Earl leaves behind a profound legacy and a clear invitation: to sustain reflective awareness at the personal level, to remain connected and dialogical at the group level, and to act responsibly within the broader institutional and social field—always mindful of the tripartite matrix that shapes our shared analytic practice.
May his memory continue to guide and inspire our community.
Alfonso D’Auria & Simona Negro
IL CERCHIO – Italian Association of Group Analysis (Federated COIRAG).