Closing Borders and Opening Boundaries

An open mind is one that is prepared to be influenced by the experiences, perspectives and beliefs of others. One that embraces continuous and diverse solutions and dreads ‘purity’. In a world that is not likely to thrive on simple answers, but desperately seems to be seeking them, what are the paths to increasing complexity and uncertainty? Is that even desirable? This workshop offers a chance to the participants to experience one’s own boundaries, challenging them with the potentials of encountering the Other. Focus will be on curiosity, on surprise, on the ideas of being affected and ‘touched’. Starting from the individual’s plexus (Foulkes, 1975) we will move to the institutional dimensi- on and the political transpersonal (Di Maria & Lo Verso, 1995): that’s where we can explore each others’ “shrinking” tendencies, the defensive mechanisms of protectionism and reductionism (Kaes & Enriquez 2011). We shall use a ‘contaminated’ paradigm that intertwines a “liquid society” (Bau- man, 2012) with group relations work (Aram et al., 2015). We welcome you in challenging boundaries of acceptance and resistance to the unknown, of com- passion and curiosity to what can be embraced and introjected, and what can be indigestible.