Groups Under Pressure
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My group-analytic work in small and large groups focuses on analyzing group communication through the group. As group analysts, we create space for talking about emotions and fantasies and encourage group participants to endure the coexistence of great diversity, perceive inner resonance phenomena, and enter into dialogue about them. To work on social rifts, we have to face the challenge of dealing openly with hatred, hostility, and conspiracy myths – including antisemitic stereotypes. Scenes from a small group in Berlin in 2024 show the balancing act of group-analytic work, in which politically motivated remarks are viewed neither on the level of rational arguments nor as purely individual phenomena. To this day, the group presented here continues to engage in circular movements with its own fear, with abrupt indifference in social interaction, with the effect of prejudice and rumor in society, and with moments of silent retreat. Group analysis can promote trust in one’s own abilities and relationships and is, at the same time, an effective means of dealing with destructive aggression such as antisemitism in the long term. I see this as an important attempt to counter the social crisis of trust with an increase in sensitivity and the ability to speak.
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9781003710868
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Link to book (paywalled), Group-as-Whole Effects on Greek Cofacilitators in International Online Large Groups on Antisemitism
