Past: Veronika Grueneisen
and present: Dorothee C. von Tippelskirch-Eissing
One of the major developments in PCCA itself is the change in the chair: After eight years, Veronika Grueneisen did not stand again for the chair. With the appropriate mix of sorrow and relief about this step in her own development, and with great delight at Dorothee’s willingness to take up this role, Veronika handed over to Dorothee von Tippelskirch-Eissing who was elected unanimously, as her successor. Veronika will remain a member of PCCA and is currently supporting Dorothee with managerial tasks, until end of Febr. 2016 in order to allow a smooth transition. All PCCA members thanked Veronika for these years of holding the chair for us, allowing us to develop the organization PCCA since the founding in 2007. Veronika has had the strength, the courage, the charm and elegance that we needed, she has been insisting in her role and did not give up in difficult times. All this has been a gift for the first years of PCCA. Now we wish Veronika all the best and are happy have her among us as active member of PCCA.
At the same time, our wishes are with our new chair person: PCCA is very glad indeed that Dorothee has been willing to take on this new responsibility, specially in the light of her dedication to PCCA work, of her management competence and experience. As we all know, in our times, societal conflict is as troubling as ever and – as with the upcoming conference – we shall need all our joint effort to focus on current conflict, using our work experience of the past and all our creative ideas for the necessary next steps, in the development of or our work
Moreover, Hermann Beland and Karin Lueders decided to leave PCCA as full members, both for personal reasons and in order to make space for younger colleagues while keeping PCCA a small-enough workgroup. They will be attached to PCCAs work as before, and Karin Lueders is continuing to edit our Newsletter. We are already feeling the loss since they have been part of the project since the first Nazareth conference in 1994 and have contributed immensely to conceptualising and developing our work. Many readers will have their own precious memories, from various conferences in which they were eminent members of staff.
PCCA is now also thinking about new members who will contribute thoughts, experiences and competencies which we shall need in the future. The first step on the way towards new and younger members was the support we enjoyed from younger colleagues who joined us for most of our meeting – Iwona Soltysinska, Yael Sharon and Oren Kaplan – who agreed to continue to cooperate with us: Iwona Soltysinska did a really impressive job organising an event in Krakow, for us, (see below in this letter) while Yael Sharon is helping us with using new media like facebook better, Oren Kaplan is consulting to us how to get access to funding which will help us continue and further develop our work.
Since the last NL, there were two events making PCCAs work more known in a wider public.
On Nov. 6th/7th, 2015, Shmuel Erlich and Dorothee von Tippelskirch-Eissing were invited to the Saxon Institute of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy – Therese Benedek – e.V., in Leipzig, to speak at the celebration of their 25th anniversary. The theme was: “How political is psychoanalysis today?” Shmuel Erlich spoke about working psychoanalytically in groups with trans-generational residues of historical trauma, using the German-Israeli conferences as an example. Dorothee von Tippelskirch-Eissing presented experiences from a German perspective.
With the sponsorship of Hanna Segal Institute and the Institute of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University/Krakow, we had an event in Krakow, on Dec. 5th, 2015. The theme was:
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Societal Conflict and Generational Transmission of Trauma.Shmuel Erlich spoke about: “Paranoia and Regression in Groups, Organizations and Society” and Mira Erlich-Ginor described: “Psychoanalytic Group Work with Transgenerational Residues of Historic Traumatization: The Case of the German-Israeli Conferences” (see report below).
In PCCAs last general assembly in Berlin, November 2015, Fakhry Davids has taken the lead in continuing the development of work with Palestinians. He is in the process of developing a network of Palestinians who consider our work as useful for them. Appropriate events will be designed according to expressed needs.
As many may know, PCCA has no financial means of its own. This is therefore an invitation to all who read this Newsletter to consider supporting our work with a regular yearly financial contribution. More details on how to become a PCCA Supporter here.
Veronika Grueneisen
February 2016
Dorothee C. von Tippelskirch-Eissing
Nuernberg, Berlin