Editors comment

Welcome to the December 2021 edition of Contexts.

Another December where people are struggling in all corners of the world. Not just because of the pandemic, which has made life even more difficult for many. For those of us more privileged we may at last be experiencing some empathy. What is happening for so many across the world brings up a well of sadness in me that I feel physically in my stomach.

As most of you now know, I am the new Editor of Contexts. Goodness! Do I know what I’m doing? Yes. I think I do but not without others expertise. I’m grateful to Peter Zelaskowski for being my patient mentor over the past year, enabling me to get to this point. Peter took his bow at the September edition which was a wakeup call for me to get connecting.

Following the last edition, we decided the theme for December would focus on the historical development of group analysis in member countries. I added to this a request for members to speak about the current challenges being experienced. Unfortunately, I haven’t connected with all member countries yet, but I will. If you haven’t heard from me and would like to write something for Contexts about your cultural GA history and challenges for now and going into the future, please do contact me. There will be more articles on GA historical perspectives in our April edition.

Thank you to those who I have been able to contact and who have generously taken up my request. Everyone has done so in a thoughtful way, both from personal and organisational experiences. Reading the articles has been fascinating, sometimes painful. I hope every member who finds time to read them will be as equally moved and informed.

Also included in this edition are some experiences with using KUBI-Robot for hybrid meetings. KUBI was used for the first time in the autumn in Teresa von Sommaruga Howard’s Creating Large Group Dialogue in Organisations and Society , normally based at Roffey Park near Gatwick but went online via Zoom during Pandemic. It may be a way of bringing more of us together from far and wide, being more inclusive and reducing our impact on climate change.

I have started an Art and Poetry Corner. If anyone would like to take on the role of editor, please let me know. This edition includes a wonderful piece of art created while the artist was listening to Sue Einhorn’s Foulkes lecture in May this year and 4 poems. Until we have an editor for this section, I’d be delighted to receive your poems and artistic creations in photos.

I was also wondering if anyone is interested in editing a jovial blog. I don’t really know what I mean by this yet, but perhaps a collection of anecdotes from across the globe highlighting humour from our many cultural perspectives.

Viv Harte
vivharte@btinternet.com