Being in Berlin: a Large Group Experience in the Berlin Congress

Int J Psychoanal (2009) 90:809–825 doi: 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2009.00169.x Being in Berlin: A large group experience in the Berlin Congress H. Shmuel Erlich*, Mira Erlich-Ginor* and Hermann Beland** *Israel Psychoanalytic Society Midbar Sinai 42, 97805 Jerusalem, Israel – [email protected] **German Psychoanalytic Association ⁄ IPA (Final version accepted 19 November 2008) In July 2007, the International Psychoanalytic Congress convened for the first time since the war in the former Nazi capital, Berlin. An open large group forum was held at this meeting, where attendees (Jewish, German and others) had the opportunity to explore the emotional aspects stirred up by being in Berlin. Hun- dreds of people participated in the event and described it as the ‘heart of the Con- gress’. We examine several aspects of the event, including the passions stirred, the containment of the setting, and the voices present and absent. Keywords: anti-Semitism, experiential large group, Holocaust, reparation, trauma To my surprise I discovered that my hotel room happens to be above the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. Then came the thought: As an analyst, do I have to identify with Hitler? I had the sudden thought of having lived with a ‘Nazi mother’ all my life. My shame at the sight of the German flag – I only hope my daughter will be free of this burden. It hadn’t occurred to me for a single moment that I might say something. Then I thought that I come from a family that remained silent all the Nazi-years. The history of psychoanalysis, by virtue of its unique relationship with Sigmund Freud and the disproportionate ratio of Jews among its early and later adherents, was deeply scorched by the rise to power of Nazism and the per- petration of the Holocaust. The persisting residues of this history make hold- ing an international psychoanalytic congress in Germany a far from neutral event. A great volume of writing has been devoted to the subject of psychoanalysis during the period of Nazi rule and afterwards. It is impossible to summarize briefly this vast historical research, which deals with the fate and adaptation of psychoanalysis under the Third Reich, the Holocaust, the collective self- scrutiny of the decades after the war, the continuing discovery by German analysts of what had happened and how they were involved in the Holocaust and the rupture of humanity, and finally with the Hamburg Congress and the ‘Nazareth Conferences’. A highly selective sample from this vast literature may include representative references such as: Beland (1988), Brainin and Kaminer (1982), Brecht et al. (1985), Erlich (2001b), Frosh (2005), Goggins and Brockman Goggins (2001), Ostow (1988) and Wallerstein (1988). ª 2009 Institute of Psychoanalysis Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA on behalf of the Institute of Psychoanalysis 810 H. S. Erlich, M. Erlich-Ginor and H. Beland The 2007 IPA Congress in Berlin was the second time this international psychoanalytic gathering has taken place in post-war, post-Holocaust Germany. Twenty-two years have passed since the previous congress took place in Hamburg in 1985. In the Hamburg Congress, ‘a form of denial’ was poignantly noted and described by Rafael Moses and Rena Hrushovski- Moses (1986). They spoke of the elusive yet palpable feeling that the burning issues of Nazism and the Holocaust were ‘papered over’ and not openly addressed or available in that congress. They attributed this denial to the fear of the organizers, who wanted to give these issues a place but were afraid of the emotional impact of potentially massive accusations and defensiveness. This denial and its consequences may have been on the minds of the organizers of the Berlin IPA Congress of 2007. Early on, they consulted with colleagues, including us, expressing their full awareness and cognizance of the special meaning of a psychoanalytic congress in Berlin, the Nazi capital, which for many is still heavily linked with the burden of that era, and their clear wish to provide a setting that would acknowledge this. This perspective was reflected in the theme chosen for the congress, ‘Remembering, Repeat- ing and Working Through in Psychoanalysis and Culture Today’. It was also concretely and contextually present in the numerous panels and lectures that dealt forthrightly with the Holocaust and the World War II years in Ger- many and elsewhere, many of them expressing painful personal experiences and reflections. Nevertheless, the organizers thought that this would not be enough. They felt that a more direct form of dealing with the anticipated emotional experiences might be needed. Responding to this need, we sug- gested, designed and carried out an event entitled ‘Being in Berlin’ that took place for one hour each morning of the three days of the Congress, parallel to the discussion groups following the main lectures. The event evolved into a high-profile and powerful experience. In what follows we wish to describe this event, its design and evolution in the actual space and time of the Congress. Such a write-up would serve as testimony to the spirit of openness and the willingness to share difficult personal feelings and intimate reflections of the many colleagues from around the world who took part in the event. Method and design In conceiving and designing this event we were greatly helped by several per- tinent experiences: our considerable familiarity and experience in designing and conducting Group Relations conferences in the Tavistock tradition (Miller, 1989), our experience of consulting to large groups within such conferences and, most importantly, the work we have done over many years in working conferences of German, Israeli ⁄ Jewish and other psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, in which the unbearable pain and guilt of each group could emerge and be explored.1 All these experiences helped prepare us for the task of designing this event and consulting to it. 1These conferences and the work done in them were the subject of a panel presentation in the Congress (Erlich et al., 2007). Int J Psychoanal (2009) 90 ª 2009 Institute of Psychoanalysis Being in Berlin: A large group experience in the Berlin Congress 811 Tavistock Group Relations Conferences provide a model for social reflection (Khaleelee and Miller, 1985). Basically, a staff is organized to provide an extended opportunity for here-and-now reflection from people, coming from a wide range of social roles, in various relatively unstructured group settings within a framework of an agreed upon task (ordinarily focusing on some aspect of leadership and authority, but often taking up wide-ranging social themes such as: Violence in the Family, Germans and Israelis, Polari- zation in Society, Prejudice and Racism, etc.). The staff works to conceptu- alize and speak to the group as a whole, a model of intervention that helps individuals locate themselves in the group process (Carr and Shapiro, 1989). In large groups, there are often several consultants working at grasp- ing the group. The purpose of multiple consultants is to have a formal role distinct from participants, authorized both to hold the perspective of the group and to speak from different viewpoints. In the setting of the Berlin Congress, we chose male and female Jewish-Israeli analysts and a male German analyst, under the working assumption that some of the themes that might emerge in the discussion might usefully be seen from these different perspectives. Using this basic framework, our foremost consideration was to provide an opportunity for a contained space for the range of thoughts, feelings and reflections that attendees from various backgrounds might experience in response to the special circumstance of ‘being in Berlin’. While we recog- nized that such a space might attract the more painful spectrum of reac- tions to World War II, we wanted to make the opportunity as open as possible. We determined that the event would take the form of an open ‘large group’ that would meet at the same time each day, with well-defined time and space boundaries. The three of us would serve as consultants to this large group, and would thus provide the necessary boundaries and containing functions. Our initial thought was to call the event ‘Coming to Berlin’.However,we realized that this title would only address those who came to Berlin as visitors, whether for the first time or not. On reflection, this might have been perceived as excluding German colleagues, who as hosts may have to deal with their feelings as well. The title was therefore changed to ‘Being in Berlin’. The description of the event, which is reproduced below, served as the only invitation and announcement and was addressed to both hosts and guests: Being In Berlin These daily sessions are intended as a container for reflecting, in a large group setting, on the experience of being in Berlin. For many, both hosts and guests, being here is not a neutral experience of visiting a well-known, foreign and important historical city. During the Congress, the exclusive focus on pursuing psychoanalytic goals and work can be very absorbing and push aside personal and subjective feelings. These sessions offer an opportunity for all who may wish to pause to reflect on their experience and to express personal thoughts and feelings. Consultants: Hermann Beland, Shmuel Erlich, Mira Erlich-Ginor ª 2009 Institute of Psychoanalysis Int J Psychoanal (2009) 90 812 H. S. Erlich, M. Erlich-Ginor and H. Beland Doubts, fears and resistances The fears, fantasies and hopes that preceded the event touched on different themes and levels, of both a methodological and personal nature. Methodo- logically our concerns included the question of the authorization to do the work; the dissemination of the information about it; and the ubiquitously difficult nature of working in a large group.

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