67th Annual Conference

Friday, February 26

Session 312

The International Financial Crisis: Implications for Treatment and Organizational Life

Presented in cooperation with the International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Process

and the AGPA International Relations SIG

Chair:

Fern Cramer Azima, Ph.D., DLFAGPA, Associate Professor Psychiatry, Adjunct Professor Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

Panelists:

Harold Bernard, Ph.D., ABPP,  CGP, DFAGPA, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York

David Gutmann, Ph.D., Chairman & CEO, Praxis International, Paris, France

Earl Hopper, Ph.D., CGP, FAGPA, Analyst & Psychoanalyst, Private Practice, London, England

Lisa Mahon, Ph.D., CGP, FAGPA, Private Practice, Atlanta, Georgia

The panel consists of senior practitioners who are also organizational leaders from Canada, US., Great Britain and France. Each will focus on the implications of the cataclysmic international economic downturn on their patients and the clinical work they do with them, on themselves and on the organizations of which they are a part. The experience of loss, depression, fear and shame will be highlighted, as well as the challenge of maintaining or re-creating feelings of worthiness and optimism at both the individual and organizational levels.

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Appreciate the importance of mourning lost illusions and hopes in order to maintain mental health and group 'charisma' as opposed to group 'disgrace'.

2. Understand the consequences of economic and social trauma on the dynamics of  leadership, social systems and philanthropic organizations.

3. Describe the role of leaders and therapists to provide a 'container' for shame, fear and isolation.

Course References:

Gutmann, D. (2009). From Transformation to transformaCtion: Methods and practices. London: Karnac Publishers.

Hopper, E. (2003). Traumatic Experience in the Unconscious Life of Groups. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Homans, P. (1989). The Ability to Mourn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Stiers, M.(1995). Containment and the threat of catastrophic change in psychotherapeutic groups. Group, 19 (3), 131-139.

Volkan, V. & Rodgers, T. (eds) (1988). Attitudes of Entitlement: Theoretical and Clinical Issues. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.