Book Review: Berliner Gruppenanalyse

Abstract

Already the title catches our attention: Berliner group analysis1 instead of just group analysis in Berlin. The editors imagine the reaction ‘Now you are called “BIG” [Berliner Institute for Group analysis], now you even want your own group analysis’; and they finally respond ‘wholeheartedly: Yes’ (p13/22). Indeed this book is evidence of a lively group-analytic community in Berlin; it contains contributions of members of the BIG. Unlike other German group-analytic institutes, the BIG was not founded in affiliation with the IGA London. As it is relatively young, founded in 2003, the editors speak of the BIG as different from older ‘established’ group-analytic institutes. But the ability to produce such a book only 16 years later certainly is a statement in a world of competing organizations—and will be important for the members of an institute that sometimes perceived itself as a ‘travelling circus’ (Husemann, see below). The book consists of 21 articles by 16 authors. The contributions are independent, and some have been published earlier, going back to 2001 (Meyer). Like in a group, the authors bring different perspectives and topics around the common theme; the book appears like a mosaic or puzzle, and some work is left to the readers to put the puzzle together. The authors’ different writing styles are refreshing. And because the individual texts can stand on their own, the book does not need to be read from cover to cover. The grouping of the articles into the three sections ‘history’, ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ is a good idea, but unfortunately the texts do not fall easily into these categories.