Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities 2019

Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities 2019
*Open to IPA members and candidates. Candidates are considered "students" and pay a reduced price for the conference, including board and tuition.*
We invite all those who recognize the painful residues of war, of current as well as historical trauma and are puzzled by their impact on them and their society. No previous experience with this kind of conference is necessary except for the wish to learn from one’s experience of membership in the presence of others and to participate in the events that the conference offers.

Go to Conference website to register and for further details:http://pcca2019.org


WHY ATTEND?

“The past is never dead. It is not even past”
William Faulkner

This is a conference that aims to uncover the impact of past traumas on the present with a view toward moving on.

Eighty years after the onset of WWII, the fallout of the Holocaust is still potently afflicting individuals and nations, determining anxieties, modes of coping, national and international dynamics, personal and interpersonal relationships.

As the second, third, and now even fourth generation of perpetrators and victims, we are the objects of the trans-generational transmission of the collective and personal traumas of WWII and the Holocaust, of totalitarian and communist dictatorships and their radioactive fallout. Jews and Israelis carry the burden of the Holocaust, Germans are burdened by the Nazi inheritance, the inhabitants of the Bloodlands, such as Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, Russia, and others, carry the impact of communism and oppressive cruel regimes.

Twenty-five years ago we launched the first Nazareth Conference: “Germans and Israelis, the Past in the Present.” The relative optimism that prevailed at that time has given way to a world in flux: we are witnessing the disturbing resurgence of neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racial intolerance, Fascism and authoritarianism, of a return to tribalism and a “me -first” mentality. As a result, we are embroiled in seemingly unstoppable cycles of inter-group strife, hatred and violence. Are we doomed to repeat these destructive patterns endlessly, or is it possible to engage with the legacy of the past in a way that may lead to a better and more hopeful future?

This experiential conference, the twelfth in this series, offers a unique space for exploring this question in relation to our world today through the combined lens of psychoanalytic understanding and the Group Relations approach. This conference aims to explore the impact of past traumas on the present. It is relevant to anyone afflicted by these past events who recognizes the importance of getting out from under their radioactive influence and of doing it in the presence of the Other. Major atrocities and other forms of historical trauma can produce profound and deeply lodged effects, such as suspiciousness, hostility, enmity and violence between victims and perpetrators. In turn, these ill feelings are transmitted and may infiltrate the lives of their descendants. They permeate the relationship between the groups involved, laying the foundation for perpetual hostility and repeated conflict. The burden of both victimhood and perpetration, and no less of being a bystander, exercise their destructive influences outside our awareness, and we may find ourselves puzzled, confused and upset by the impact they have on our lives.

This conference is intended for all who suffer from the impact of such enmities, are troubled by them and want to explore and work on their own experience towards understanding – rather than surrendering to – the sinister forces involved. The hope is that this may open the way to moving forward. Away from the pressures of everyday life, the conference provides a safe setting for such forces to emerge and opportunities to explore and try to understand them. It is also an opportunity to discover whether genuine movement in the real lived relationships between members of such groups may be possible.


When
11/09/2019 - 16/09/2019
Where
Forest Park Hotel CYPRUS