Psychoanalysis and Politics. Violence-Aggression-Regression
Saturday, May, 13th 2006
from 2pm to 7pm
Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue
Armbrustergasse 15, 1190 Vienna
Welcome and opening by Rudolf Scholten and Inge Scholz-Strasser
Introduction and summary by Vamik Volkan
Speeches by Gündüz Aktan, Joseph Montville and Sverre Varvin

In celebration of Freud's 150th birthday this meeting brings psychoanalysts and diplomats together to expand Freud's theory of group psychology. The meeting's focus is on large-group identity and regression. Ethnic, religious and national identities are the end result of myths of common beginning, historical continuities, geographical realities and other shared events. When there is shared anxiety and regression the members of a large group become preoccupied with maintaining, repairing and redefining their large-group identity. Psychoanalysts participating in this meeting are doing field work outside of their offices and diplomats present in this meeting are interested in the role of both conscious and unconscious psychodynamics in politics and world affairs. This meeting examines how certain elements of large-group identity converge to create prejudices, diplomatic difficulties and/or massive violence. Do collaborations between psychoanalysts and diplomats provide new ways to develop strategies for dealing with the current world affairs? What are the examples of such collaborations? What are the signs of large-group regression? What are the large-group identity issues in the EU? What are the psychological considerations in accepting new members into the EU, such as Turkey? Do collaborations between psychoanalysis and diplomacy offer fresh insights about Islamist terrorism and the Western world's response to it? Questions such as these will be raised.

Vamik Volkan
Fulbright/Sigmund Freud Foundation Visiting Scholar of Psychoanalysis; Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; Senior Erik Erikson Scholar, The Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, Massachusetts and Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus, Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Washington D.C.

Sverre Varvin
Psychiatrist; Training and Supervising Analyst, Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society; Senior Researcher, National Knowledge Centre for the Study on Violence and Trauma, affiliated with the University of Oslo, Norway.

Gündüz Aktan
President, ASAM (Eurasia Strategic Researches Center), Ankara, Turkey; former Turkish ambassador to Greece, Japan and UN (Geneva); newspaper columnist for Radikal and Turkish Daily News.

Joseph Montville
Senior Fellow, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University, Washington D.C; former official American diplomat.

A Cooperation of the Sigmund Freud Foundation and the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue