1980-1998 From Groupanalysis to Group of Analysis (Grup d’Anàlisi) 3
1987-1998 IAGP: Group Analysis Section
The other project dear to Juan Campos is the creation of a Section of Group Analysis as a space of integrative and multidisciplinary dialogue between all the different approaches to group work present right from the beginning in the IAGP. In May of 1987 he presents to the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors meeting in August in Amsterdam the first formal proposal —bilingual English-Spanish— for the constitution of a Permanent Specialized Analytic Section of Group Analysis in the IAGP, under the conditions stipulated by Article X[1] of the Constitution in reference to specialized sections. According to these conditions twenty-five signed petitions are presented by individual members (see the application signatures). In a memorandum for the occasion (Memorandum 1987) and considering the resistances raised by the proposition, Juan presents the fundamental questions, the objectives related to Article II of the Constitution[2], the question of the different languages and comments also on the dialogues of the seven meetings dedicated to settle related problems in preparation of the meeting in Amsterdam—on occasions that some members met up in meetings and congresses in different places of Europe: Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia and Oxford. In March 1988 (Informative letter 1988) Juan Campos, as member of the Board of Directors, informs the members who had shown interest in a Permanent Specialized Section of Group Analysis of IAGP in a letter about the progress of the proposal during 1987 and asks them to indicate their present state of commitment. For the Board Meeting in August 1988 in Windsor, Juan Campos once again prepares a proposal of various pages in view of encouraging his colleagues to discuss the fundamental questions. He considers events related to the subject of Special Interest Sections in the history of IAGP and the possible reasons for the phobic avoidance of sections. Juan argues in favour of a healthy heterodoxy and feels sorry that his proposals are misinterpreted. He informs that this process of SAGA/GAAS (Sección Analítica Grupo Análisis/Group Analysis Analytic Section) how he called it, has generated a correspondence which would well be worthwhile to revise and take into account, and that it includes testimony of some “authorized” persons of the Association as are: Raymond Battegay, ex-president and president of the by-laws and rules Committee; Jay W. Fiddler, ex-president and ex-Secretary of many years; Fern Cramer-Azima, president-elect; Raquel Berman, president of the membership committee; Lise Rafelson, president of the nominations committee; and Max Rosenbaum, honourable member of the Association and of multiple committees. Juan proposes to his colleagues that in the light of his presentation they examine the general questions of specialized sections based on theoretical and methodological orientations and that they pronounce themselves in principle in relation to the limits and conditions made explicit for the constitution of sections and their organization in view of the cooperation between its members coherent with IAGP and its wider objectives. It seemed to him that the common denominator of the objections derived from the deeply entrenched conviction that an unhealthy competition between members is inevitable and in case of an outbreak leads to an inevitable collision and fragmentation of our social body.
Juan maintains the hope of a healthy competitiveness between human beings,
against a multinational cooperation for competitiveness
of the “conservative revolution” of our days.
He believes in the basic assumption of mutual respect in the communication
between representatives of different theories and methods and, quoting Foulkes,
“that we are not here to iron out our differences
but to discuss our hypotheses and methods in the operative arena of the group”.
In May 1989, Juan Campos informs all the ones concerned of the results of the IAGP Board meeting in Cumberland Lodge in September 1988: The proposal of a formal section of group analysis is considered creating a sub-group which does not favour the Association. The Board suggests “the acceptable and viable alternative of assembling during some time in function of common professional interests a Study Group in Group Analysis, establishing an international network of communication fostering the work in the theory and practice of Group Analysis which members execute in their societies, institutes and local and national organizations.” Juan stated that how to operatively establish such a network of study groups in group analysis was in fact implementing the old SAGA/GAAS project. Moreover, Grup d’Anàlisi Barcelona is from this moment on the first of these study groups. He also informed the interested parties that the creation of the Study Group in Group Analysis is announced in the IAGP Newsletter of January 1989. In February and August 1991 Juan writes to the Board of IAGP and the members related to the ambit of group analysis commenting the work of the first groupanalyst, Trigant Burrow, one of whose principal objectives had been to foster communication and correspondence between professionals. He also informed of the publication of the first number of Lifwynn Correspondence on part of the Lifwynn Foundation, the groupanalytic group founded by that author and his colleagues in 1927. He also informed that very soon details will be received about the objectives of the Study Group in Group Analysis.
In September 1991, during a European Symposium of Group Analysis celebrated in Lisbon, the Board of Directors of IAGP met. For this Board meeting Juan Campos prepared his Report on the Standing Committee of the Study Group in Group Analysis. The Report has three principal points:
- A short history of the establishment of this Committee
- The institutional meaning of the concept of “study group” as an alternative to the establishment of “sections” contemplated in Article X of the bye-laws in relation to obtaining the general objectives of IAGP.
- Tasks and projects contemplated by the presidency of the Committee of the Study Group, proposal of the organization of the Committee, and philosophy and lines of action to be implemented by the Study Group in Group Analysis.
Preparations are made to celebrate a Symposium on Trigant Burrow during the XI International Congress of IAGP in 1992 in Montreal with the title “Beyond dichotomy: the orientation of Trigant Burrow”. In June 1992, a couple of months before the Congress, Juan Campos, as chairman of the Study Group in Group Analysis informs the members of the Committee about the days and hours of the Symposium as also of the meeting of the Study Group itself which will be immediately after the Symposium. The letter post-congress Montreal of Alfreda Galt of September 17, 1992 to the members of IAGP who identify themselves as groupanalysts gives a general idea of the Symposium on Burrow as well as the meeting of the Study Group in Group Analysis. The posting includes number 2.2 of LifCor which publishes the papers of the Symposium presented by Juan Campos, as chairman, Max Rosenbaum, Alfreda S. Galt, Lloyd Guilden and John R. Wikse.
J. Wiske, J. Campos, M. Rosenbaum & A. Galt. XI Congress of IAGP, 1992, Montreal
Just before another European Symposium of Group Analysis, this time in Heidelberg, in August-September of 1993, Juan, as chairman of the Committee, sends a short report on the last part of the trajectory of the Study Group in Group Analysis. BUT… During the Symposium of Group Analysis in Heidelberg the Board of Directors of the IAGP meets and, curiously, the petition made there and approved on the spur of the moment for an International Psychodrama Section precipitates the decision that the Study Group of Group Analysis be re-named Section of Group Analysis, as can be read in the Minutes of the inaugural meeting celebrated in Heidelberg. Amongst the people present emerges the hope that something new and productive is coming from this Section of the IAGP. It is decided to celebrate a Symposium on “The social relevance of groupanalytic work in relation to the actual world problems” during the upcoming XII International Congress of the IAGP in Buenos Aires in 1995.
At the last European meeting of the Board of Directors of IAGP before the Buenos Aires Congress, in September 1994 in Santander, Juan Campos as Chairman and then second vice-president of the Association presents: 1. The Report of the Group Analysis Section about the last meeting of the Section celebrated in the University of Sacro Cuore in Rome and 2. Ten questions of the members of the Section and his own for the consideration of the Board. In the introduction he asks to correct the constant error of referring to the Group-Analytic Section instead of the Group Analysis Section.
From the XII Congress of the IAGP in Buenos Aires onwards —already as first Vice-president of the Association— and as a result of a long interview that Nora Speier and Graciela Ventrici of the Argentinean Journal of Group Psychology and Psychotherapy make him, Juan Campos directs his interest more and more towards history, which in 1998 leads to the bilingual publication of “A history of the IAGP: Facts and Findings”.
In February of 1998 Juan Campos presents his last Report as Co-chairman of the Section of Group Analysis ) to the Board Meeting of the IAGP celebrated in Chicago. The Report contemplates seven questions which according to Juan are of fundamental importance in clarifying the functioning of Sections in the ambit of Group Analysis in the IAGP as he had planned. For anyone interested in the subject these seven considerations clarify profoundly the proposal which Juan had developed over fifteen years. There emerged a counter-proposal in line with a Group-Analytic Interest Section on the part of the new president of IAGP which goes in an ideological line of development radically different to the one proposed and fostered by Juan Campos. It is this way that comes to an end the project of a transdisciplinary and transnational space in the ambit of group analysis in the IAGP.
[1] Article X: SECTIONS. The Board of Directors may in its discretion establish temporary or continuing sections based on specialized interest, in order to serve the purpose of the Association and to provide for cooperation in the organization of congresses. Under such conditions as the Board may set up, sections may organize for their internal cooperation in ways consistent with the organization of the International Association and its broad purposes. The range of sections will depend upon present and future needs. Action to initiate a section may be initiated by an application to the Board signed by twenty-five or more members of the Association.
[2] Article II which states that “the ultimate purpose of our Association is to effectively assure co-operation between all those organizations and persons concerned with the use and study of group resources in psychotherapy and in dealing with human problems” and that this may be equally achieved by promoting mutual communication between representatives of different theories and practice as between those with similar orientations which remain separated because of power struggles over political, nationalistic, economical, linguistic or socio-cultural interests.