Contexts Editor

Then, tomorrow was another day
The morning found me miles away

I went shopping this morning. A beautiful spring morning with a totalitarian whiff in the air. There were strange queues and strange tensions outside shops. People eyeing each other up and measuring social distances. Only 3 in each shop at any one moment. Feels like a cross between Xmas day (where is everyone?), a crime scene (police tape everywhere telling us where not to go) and Brazil (not the country but Terry Gilliam’s great movie take on Orwell’s 1984).

There’s one thing that I’m certain of
Return I will to…

I do a circuit of five shops, each making sure that I have a receipt in case I’m stopped by the police checking on my purpose. Despite needing this brief intake of fresh air and freedom, and it’s fresher than ever, I’m relieved to return to the dark interiors of home, a refuge from the odd undercurrents of this disturbing new reality. A client of mine told the group this week she’d gone for a walk in the park and had been threatened by the police with a 600 euro fine. Quim Torra, the president of the Catalan government, who himself has the virus, has attacked the central government in Madrid for undermining his capacity to lock down Catalonia…plus ca change. Although, it has to be said that this crisis appears to be trumping all that came before. A very short while ago Brexit was the only polarising collective trauma in town, but now, through the new viral optic, it barely gets a mention. So, I am deeply grateful to those colleagues, Carmen O’Leary, Terry Birchmore, Arturo Ezquerro and Vivian de Villiers for taking up my invitation to write such personal and insightful reflections on Brexit, for this the first post-Brexit issue of Contexts. This issue also contains a number of reports from workshops and conferences that took place in Berlin, St Petersburg, Melbourne and Israel, as well as the latest concept drawn from the group-analytic dictionary project, Foulkes’ basic law of group dynamics, outlined for us by Lars Bo Jorgensen.

New Editor of Contexts

I have decided to begin the process of withdrawing from my role as editor of this publication. This year, after 6 years on the MC, as required by our constitution, I will be stepping down from the position of chair of the Online Communications Committee. When I took on the role of editor I was very fortunate that the former editor Terry Birchmore organised the transition by giving me an apprenticeship of a year working alongside him and learning the job. I would like to offer the same opportunity to the person who agrees to take this on. Please contact me if you are interested.

Next Issue

Finally, as always, please write and let me know what you think or if there are any matters arising from this issue to which you would like to respond. The next issue of Contexts will be dedicated to two core concerns: firstly, preparing for the Barcelona Symposium – I invite contributions of all sorts, in particular stories and personal experiences of the Catalan capital; and secondly, and unavoidably, our responses to the current crisis, as psychotherapists, group analysts and citizens, collectively and individually.

…old Brazil
That old Brazil
Man, it’s old in Brazil
Brazil, Brazil

Peter Zelaskowski
peterzelaskowski@gmail.com