GASi Summer School: Statement of Purpose

Mission: Connecting people in the international sphere on a deep personal level, enhancing mutual understanding through an intense group analytic experience.

Here group analysis is understood as a tool, supporting international understanding beyond political correctness and good intentions.

Aim: To strengthen group analytic identity and to develop group analysis, as well as GASi, through attracting people from all over Europe and beyond, offering affordable access to high level group analysis.

If participants are group analysts it is hoped to strengthen their group analytic identity, though the development of group analysis itself and of GASI is independent of the affiliation of the participants.

Method: A 3-4-day summer school for group analysts, in training or already trained, as well as other people with an interest in groups. Its program includes diverse elements: small groups, large groups, lectures, discussion- and supervision groups – the format is established but open to further developments.

The program lays emphasis on experiential learning, though other elements are included. People from outside the group analytic community are very welcome. The encounter should be as informal as possible, which implies, among other things, that no credit points were given. The regulations in different countries for accrediting an event are different; e. g., some countries only give credits when all participants and staff are medical doctors and/or psychotherapists. That was considered to put too much restriction on the summer school.

The number of participants in the end was limited to ca. 80 – with staff ca. 100 persons. The decision was not to exceed this number, thus preserving the intimate character of the summer school.

Partnership: The summer schools are born out of a partnership between GASi and different group analytic institutes or societies. Such institutes preferably should be members of EGATIN. The choice of partners is influenced by an appreciation of the varying conditions in different potential host countries.

Summer schools could be mistaken as a colonising strategy from GASi’s side. Therefore, the partnership on equal terms with a local society/institute is crucial.

Organisation: The school is jointly organised by an international organising team, including a bridging member of the previous local organising committee, and the local organising committee of the current summer school.

The international organising team consists of two persons from GASi, two persons from the current summer school and – to ensure the transfer of experience – a bridging person from the organising group of the previous summer school.

Staff: The task of the staff group is to hold and contain the summer school. There are two subgroups: local staff, chosen by the local organising committee of our partner organisation and an international staff that is chosen by the international organising committee of GASi. Criteria for the composition of staff include a broad diversity considering such dimensions such as nationality, gender, age/experience etc.  Participation in the staff is on a rotation base. Further implied is the intention to invite into the staff people who are not yet prominent in the group analytic community, so as to encourage and develop new generations of group analysts. This, in turn, extends GASi’s base.

The staff group – small/large group conductors, conductors of supervision- and discussion groups, – is the backbone of the summer school, holding and containing it’s powerful dynamics.  Furthermore, it is an excellent opportunity for younger colleagues to come forward, taking responsibility as group conductors, giving lectures etc. The aim is to encourage them and thus developing a next generation of group analysts.

Frequency: The summer school is held annually – in non-symposium years – each year in a different country.

The break in years of the symposium is to reduce the workload.

Summary: The summer school is an immediate expression of the internationalisation of our society. Its goals are foremost developmental in character: spreading and developing group analysis as method and theory, supporting group analytic organisations, developing people by providing group analytic experiences, developing the members of staff by encouraging them to take responsible positions and to contribute to the further development of GASi by attracting new people with their various experiences that have to be integrated into our thinking and our organisation.

Regine Scholz & David Glyn
London, November 2015

Comments in red by Regine Scholz, August 2021