66th Annual Conference

Friday, February 20

Open Sessions

12:45 - 1:45 P.M.

Lunch-Time Large Group

This session is also being held on Thursday (7:15-8:15 am) and Saturday (1:30-4:00 pm).

Chair:              

Felix de Mendelssohn, M.S.W., Head of Department of Psychoanalytic Studies, Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, Austria

The psychoanalytic large group is an experiential setting in which participants are encouraged to contribute free associations - observations, thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, reflections - in spontaneous fashion, to find one's own voice in the crowd, while also listening to the other voices present. Participants should try to attend all sessions.

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Analyze defense mechanisms typical of unstructured large group situations.

2. Appraise the role of regression in large group situations.

3. Question their own and others' attitudes to group leadership.

4. Integrate early feelings, for instance of confusion, loss, anger, gratitude and togetherness.

Course References:

1. Felix de Mendelssohn: The Aesthetics of the Political in Group Analytic Process  -  the Wider Scope, in: Group Analysis (London), No.4, Vol.33, 438-458, 2000.

2. Gerhard Wilke: The Large Group and its Conductor, in: Building on Bion - Branches, ed. by R.M. Lipgar and M. Pines (Jessica Kingsley, London 2003).

3. Malcolm Pines: Large Groups and Culture, in: The Large Group Re-Visited, ed. S. Schneider and H. Weinberg (Jessica Kingsley, London 2003).