Director’s Report: War in Ukraine – A PCCA Virtual Event

Sponsoring Organizations

This is an interesting point, it is the first time that a PCCA activity is not sponsored by other organizations (Psychoanalytic and Group Relations organizations). On the overt level it had to do with the sense of urgency and the tight schedule, but I assume it reflects a dynamics that came up during the Event: a sense of each to him/herself. In practical terms all the potential sponsoring organizations helped in advertising the Event, but on a symbolic level it has to be considered and learned from.

Membership and Staff

48 participants came from 15 countries – from North America in the west to Taiwan in the east – with many European countries, including Ukrainians and Russians in exile. Majority of women, half the membership over 60 years old, The biggest national groups were Germans and Israelis (as is typical for PCCA events). Most of
the members had previous Group Relations experience but only have had PCCA previous experience.

Structure and Design

The virtual Event took place 3 days in a row, 6 hours every day.

It was composed of groups The Event was composed of Opening and Closing Plenaries, Large Groups, 7 heterogenic Small Groups, and PIPE: The Past in the Present Event, an here and now event that aimed “to explore relevant subjects and examine how the past is alive in the present in conscious and unconscious ways and how the past and present may influence the future”. This organizational event was planned and became the heartbeat of the WUPE. Interesting dynamics were at play like the scarce use and resentment to the Management (authority/ authoritarian) offers, the choice to settle in “Kiev” and Moscow” territories, avoiding “London”. Not making use of resources available and feeling attacked, lonely and deprived.

Two post event took place: a questionnaire sent one week after the Event (see appendix III) and a follow up Meeting 7 weeks after the Event. If the questionnaire became routing following PCCA and other GR activities, the a follow up meeting was discussed with the staff but was not part of the design of the Event. It was “to be decided following the Event” . The possibility of a follow up meeting was offered in the questionaire.

Questionnaire sent on September 11th

The semi-structured questionnaire invited feedback and reflections.

We got 27 responses to the questionnaire and some free communications were sent.

All in all, those who replied to the questionnaire were appreciative of the Event, its operation and what they gained from it. For some it surpassed their expectations. There was one member for whom the Event did not meet the expectations at all.

The reasons for joining the Event were various but the following is a good example: “Opportunity to do something that will take out of impotence, irrelevance. Guilt about the silence and the bystander’s stance”. Other motivations frequently mentioned were: a wish to meet Ukrainians and Russians; to meet international membership and to join a PCCA event.

Here are some citations from the questionnaire:

“The experiences in the event gave me insights about difficult, aggressive and problematic group dynamics, I felt more connected to the war and to others who are troubled about it”.

“I became aware of my responsibility in affirming what we know as psychoanalysts about violence and what it does to perpetrators, victims and bystanders and how this dehumanization is passed on to the next generations if it is not recognized and addressed”.

“It connected me to my aggression and other’s aggression and to the acknowledgment about the gap between our need to fix reality and the need to accept the chaos and primitive states which many times drive people and groups and are very difficult to handle”

“For me it was in important lesson of presenting myself to people with various backgrounds and finding a balance between being present and being safe”

“Everyone reacted according to their own history, that of their own country, their geographic location, but we all felt the wight, the pain and the sense of helplessness. The second day we were overcome by despair, humiliation and a disheartened of not knowing what to do, helpless and hopeless.”

“My learning was that it is not easy to digest an ongoing war and maybe that it is almost impossible to do integration work whilst it is still ongoing”

“I found my rage and sadness quite astonishing”

“The event had left me very impressed. I was in the ‘kiev group’. It felt like being in an emergency room in the frontier at a war times , and became to be a symbolic illustration of ‘Kiev /Jerusalem’ as representing the actual victims of the world”

“The PIPE event was overwhelming, I was surprised about the aggressive interactions in the small group in ‘Moscow’ and between groups and that we needed to accept unprocessed issues regarding the Ukrainians sense of belonging and the volume of aggression between members and groups.”

Would you recommend a PCCA Event?

“Yes. I think PCCA has a very powerful way of talking about things (war, conflict, atrocity, trauma) that are difficult to talk about, especially across various sides of the issues. I’d like to see more people in fields related to conflict, trauma, etc. attend the conferences.”

Follow-up Meeting, October 21st

The big question: is it possible, meaningful and profitable to do a PCCA Event in the midst of an ongoing war, remains to be further explored. The evaluation of the staff and the reactions of the members it seemed that it was worth the while.

We could identify specific dynamics that are not usual to a PCCA Event, not are they specific to a virtual event, such as: a sense of unusual difficulty, fragmentation, exclusion, lack of trust, and aggressive invasion of privacy. All these were enacted.

There was no playfulness nor intimacy, though there was longing for these. The dreams that were shared held deception and threat.

Lack of trust in the institution was apparent.

Repeating attacks by invasion of privacy toward women on the staff was enacted, summed up by the quote from an American song: “I did not know my gun was loaded; I am so sorry my friend”

Although on the overt level participants came with open arms toward Ukrainians, unconsciously we could see ambivalence and keeping a distance, thus reducing the Ukrainian participants to the victim role.

It is good that we mounted this Event, as a group dedicated to work with Collective Atrocities we had and we met the challenge.

This may be part of our responsibility to society: at a time that a war is raging we can at least be aware, talk and share. Avoid ignoring, banalizing the atrocities, recognize aggression from the side of the aggressor and from the side of the victims. Remember how easy it is to be mobilized to become aggressors event in an artificial sheltered environment, how easy it is to be deskilled and lose your way, your identity.

We mounted this event because we thought that this is what we can contribute to the community at this time. It was a risk we took. Many said it required courage.

We think it worked.

As one participant said: “All PCCA events were a preparation for this one”.

Reflections

The big question: is it possible, meaningful and profitable to do a PCCA Event in the midst of an ongoing war, remains to be further explored. The evaluation of the staff and the reactions of the members it seemed that it was worth the while.

We could identify specific dynamics that are not usual to a PCCA Event, not are they specific to a virtual event, such as: a sense of unusual difficulty, fragmentation, exclusion, lack of trust, and aggressive invasion of privacy. All these were enacted.

There was no playfulness nor intimacy, though there was longing for these. The dreams that were shared held deception and threat.

Lack of trust in the institution was apparent.

Repeating attacks by invasion of privacy toward women on the staff was enacted, summed up by the quote from an American song: “I did not know my gun was loaded; I am so sorry my friend”

Although on the overt level participants came with open arms toward Ukrainians, unconsciously we could see ambivalence and keeping a distance, thus reducing the Ukrainian participants to the victim role.

It is good that we mounted this Event, as a group dedicated to work with Collective Atrocities we had and we met the challenge.

This may be part of our responsibility to society: at a time that a war is raging we can at least be aware, talk and share. Avoid ignoring, banalizing the atrocities, recognize aggression from the side of the aggressor and from the side of the victims. Remember how easy it is to be mobilized to become aggressors event in an artificial sheltered environment, how easy it is to be deskilled and lose your way, your identity.

We mounted this event because we thought that this is what we can contribute to the community at this time. It was a risk we took. Many said it required courage.

We think it worked.

As one participant said: “All PCCA events were a preparation for this one”.

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