International Development Committee Report: Fifth GASi Summer School in Group Analysis
The Fifth GASi Summer School was held in Rijeka from 24th to 28th of July 2019, in cooperation with the Croatian Group Analytic Society (IGA Zagreb). The title of the Summer School was ˝Tolerance, Harbouring Diversities˝.
After a long period of fruitful preparations together the GASi Summer School Subcommittee: Tija Despotovic as chair, Bessy Karagianni, Vid Vanja Vodusek, bridge person from the previous Summer School in Ljubljana, and the LOC: Ljiljana Moro, President of IGA Zagreb, Mirjana Pernar and Sanja Janovic as a Chair of the Summer School with their team carefully prepared all the necessary conditions, and created a holding environment during the event itself.
We had two venues in the centre of Rijeka: the Governor’s Palace, now the City Museum, where Lectures, LG and the staff meetings were held and the Gymnasium Andrija Ljudevit, where the small groups, discussion groups and the supervision groups were held, as well as lunches and coffee breaks. The venues were close to each other. The whole event was marked by very hot weather.
Participants
There were 97 participants (84 students and 13 staff members), from 18 different countries: Croatia 21 (15 students and 6 staff members), Slovenian 15 (14+1); UK 13 (11+2); Serbia 10 (9+1); Italy 7 (6+1); Albania 4; Germany 4; Bosnia and Herzegovina 4; India 4; Finland 3; Russia 2; Greek 1; North Macedonia 1; Israel 2 (1+1); Austria 2; New Zealand 2; Norway 1; Netherlands 1.
The Staff Members were: Ljiljana Moro, Mirjana Pernar, Sanja Janovic, Ante Bilic, Vedran Bilic, Aldo Spelic, Marit Joffe Milstein, Alice Mulasso, Andrew Mallet, Bessy Karagianni, Vid Vanja Vodusek, David Glyn and Tija Despotovic.
Programme
The structure of the school programme was kept as in previous schools. We had small groups, lectures, discussion groups (two peer discussion groups, two with conductors) and a large group (LG).
The school began on Wednesday afternoon with introductions given first by the historian Tea Perincic, who spoke about the history of Rijeka, then by Ljiljana Moro, IGAZ President and finally by David Glyn, GASI President. They provided rich input for the discussion groups that came after. The LG, conducted by Vedran Bilic And Tija Despotovic, came after that. Following on from the LG, there was a very nice welcome reception at the Governor’s Palace, attended by all participants.
The second, third and fourth days had the same structure: small group, lecture, discussion group, supervision group and large group. On Thursday Andrew Mallet gave a lecture: ˝Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore: Intolerance as a virtue in the analytic group˝. It was vivid, supported by sound and visual effects, with music including ethnic Croatian song.
On Friday Vid Vanja Vodusek gave the lecture: ˝Tolerating the horror of unheimlichkeit: I don’t believe…yet I am certain˝ in which he engaged with personal questioning of the values of the connectedness with Other..).
On Friday Mirjana Pernar gave a Lecture: ˝Ethics: mine, ours, theirs˝ in which she focused on revising the values and limits of tolerating different experiences in supervision with trainees.
The small groups, conducted by the group analysts from the international and Croatian staff team, were an appreciated part of the event. The supervision groups, conducted by two supervisors, one from international and one from Croatian Staff, allowed students who presented their work to experience different modes of supervision and interaction with other students.
Discussion groups were an important part of the school. They were median size groups sometimes on the verge of deep, personal work. It gave us material to think about the borders within the school.
The LG was a place full of fears of uncertain presence, failing parents, lost sons or jeopardized youth, young women and men who are either threatened by uniforms (war) or idealizing them. Underneath there were war conflicts (recent to the region and past everywhere) difficult to name and work through, but it was possible to reveal some parts of the hidden family histories and despair in contact with war crimes. The conductors (Croatian and Serbian) together could only slightly touch these themes and render them more profound. But the whole social context was there. It was encouraging to see the younger generation find their voices in order to express themselves and confront the older generation.
The Staff Team, convened by David, met every day after the programme. These meetings gave us an opportunity to discuss our experiences and to feel contained in the very exhausting and deep work.
The Gala dinner was on Saturday evening in the garden of the Governor’s Palace. It was interrupted by a heavy storm while the school enjoyed a well-prepared dinner in a beautiful environment.
Sunday, the fifth day was without a lecture and had a closing session, during which gratitude was expressed to each other and thought were shared about the future.
After the school, all participants were invited to send their lectures and free contributions to Peter Zelaskowski to be published in the December issue of Contexts.
Sanja Janovic from Rijeka was chosen to be the bridge person and member of the Summer School subcommittee for the next Summer School and we said goodbye to Vid Vanja Vodusek.
Finance
The school had two types of fees, as in previous GASi Summer Schools. The distribution of payments Low/High fee 47:29. The GASIF Committee approved 1000 Euros for bursaries to be returned if surplus. Bursaries were given to 15 students, two for 80% of the registration fee, seven for 50%, two 30%, four 20% – from seven countries. The School was in surplus. The income from the registration fees covered all expenses and bursaries, helped by a donation from Sanja Janovic.
Overview
The school was very successful. There were more young people than before. It was very international (18 countries), with a growing number of students (84). It seems it has become a regular GASi event with its own continuous life, in which we can begin to understand the meaning and recognize the growing value the Summer School has during the process of becoming (and being) a group analyst, in providing an opportunity to communicate on a deep level during the school and not “only” within one’s own institute or country.
Summer School 2021
There will be no Summer School next year because 2020 is Barcelona Symposium year. During the Summer School in Rijeka, a group analyst from Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elvir Becirovic expressed an initiative to organise the summer school in the future in Tuzla. We have also had some discussions about holding the GASi Summer School in Italy, Ireland and Albania.
Tija Despotovic & Bessy Karagianni