EGATIN PRAGUE 2027 - "The Totalitarian Object in the Matrix: Exploring the Concept and Its Application in Group Analytic Training"

Introduction

Across the world, we are witnessing a disquieting resurgence of totalitarian thinking,
authoritarian rule, and extremist ideology. Old certainties about the irreversibility of
democratic progress are being tested by new and old forms of domination, propaganda,
polarization, and the erosion of dissent. History reminds us that totalitarian regimes rarely
remain contained within their own borders — they have repeatedly been the architects of war,
turning internal domination into external aggression. Movements once thought consigned to
history are re-emerging in new guises, reminding us that the totalitarian impulse is not simply
a historical episode but a persistent potential within individuals, groups, and societies.

Few places carry this history as vividly as the Czech Republic, and few cities as vividly as
Prague. Marked in the twentieth century by Nazi occupation, and subsequently by decades of
communist rule following the 1948 coup, Prague witnessed both the crushing of the 1968
reform movement and, finally, the peaceful collapse of totalitarian rule in the Velvet
Revolution of 1989. This layered experience of subjugation, resistance, and liberation offers a
uniquely resonant backdrop for reflecting on the totalitarian object: how it takes root from
earliest childhood in all of us, how it becomes internalized, under what conditions it awakens
within individuals, groups, and societies, how it is transmitted across generations, and how it
may be recognized and resisted.

Group analysis, from its origins, has been deeply concerned with the relationship between the
individual and the social matrix, between inner and outer worlds, between the personal
unconscious and the social unconscious in which we are all embedded. The totalitarian
object—as an internal structure, a relational dynamic, and a social phenomenon—inevitably
finds its way into our groups, our institutions, and our training settings, sometimes hidden,
sometimes disturbingly explicit.

At the EGATIN Study Days 2027 in Prague, we will explore the concept of the totalitarian
object and its many manifestations: in the individual psyche, in group life, in societies past
and present, and in the structures of group analytic training itself. Through lectures,
discussion groups, and large groups, we will ask how group analysis can help us understand
the origins and mechanisms of totalitarian thinking, how it may covertly shape our trainings
and institutions, and how our discipline can respond, both theoretically and practically, to the
challenges posed by the current rise of totalitarianism and extremism worldwide.
We are looking forward to meeting you in Prague!

If you are applying for a bursary, please register for the study days at the early bird
fee but do not transfer any money until the allocation of bursaries has been finalised
in early February.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Prague!