Second Year, Fourth Semester and Prix Irene

It is generally expected that the first contribution to the blog is supposed to be about the start of the school year. Nevertheless, I am always being surprised that the beginning passes so fast and now it is almost Christmas, then New Year and finally the finals in January.

This semester we are getting closer to cover all the required subjects from the General Education section. Therefore, I will write my finals from subjects such as American History since 1865, introduction to Sociology, Great Books, and (not overly known in Czech schools) Reason & Argument, which purpose is to be able to identify, reconstruct, and evaluate deductive and inductive arguments. Furthermore, to involve our analytic skills which are developed through critical analyses of examples of reasoning found in newspaper articles, scientific journals, statistical reports and ethical debates. Although those subjects are not core to my major Psychology I must say that are useful and informative in the broader perspective. Moreover the lecturers are doing their best when providing us with their knowledge and experience with the subject. For instance Mr. William Cohn who teaches Reason & Argument fills the three hour lecture not only with information but does not forget about proper portion of humour, which I decided not to publish in this contribution.

Beside school responsibilities, I continue with English lecturing, additionally I started teaching English to children in age from nine to eleven at a language school.

Moreover, I attended Prix Irene Conference as a volunteer and I would like to provide you with more information.
Prix Irene (Irene Bloomfield Prize) is awarded annually to the individuals as a recognition of their activity contributing to the promotion of peace among the groups of people. The laureate is elected by secret ballot and the prize is awarded by the “Committee for Prix Irene”. The Prize is awarded for the activity or work in the field of social life and coexistence, journalism, literature or arts in general, theology or science. The presentation of the Prize is usually accompanied by a seminar or conference.

Prix Irene has been designed to support peace (and prevent animosity) among the groups of people that differ from one another and for whom these differences might become the source of non-understanding or aggression. Prix Irene should remind us of the ideas and endeavours of Irene Bloomfield who devoted her life work to the establishment of peace and who trained also in Prague a group of her students and who contributed in a unique manner to the therapy of holocaust consequences. It is Prix Irene Committee, Rafael Institute and Israeli Institute of Group Analysis who on the occasion of the 10th Prix Irene jointly organised a conference with international and inter-disciplinary participation on the topic: Trauma-Dream-Consciousness: Traumatised Groups-Healing-Identity.
The purpose of the conference is to open new knowledge and perspectives about the origin of totalitarian patterns whim may lead to various abusive regimes including Holocaust; moreover, what roles have the processes of human unconsciousness and culture in origin of t totalitarianism and subsequently during the healing from the trauma; and finally, what importance can have the experience of identity to an individual or a social group. Among the lecturers there were leading psychotherapists from Israel, Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and the Czech Republic. There were also specialists from sociology, politics science, justice, and diplomacy field.

The course of lectures was introduced by speak on the Trauma of guilt, followed by lectures on the topic of minorities in the Czech Republic, the nature of the Czechs and whether we are traumatized nation as a consequence to the series of historical events we had faced to. Early in the afternoon, the Prix Irene awarding ceremony was taking place. It is not necessary to provide the complete list of lectures and the speakers; therefore I mention only those most interesting for me. There were speaks on:  Dreams and Dreaming, Czech land as the Cradle of Critical Thought, and Psychoanalytic view of the Totalitarian Mentality. Some lectures were complemented by discussions and the conference was accompanied by thematic workshops and group activities with specialist supervision.

This great event, which I believe, is one of the most significant in psychological world, was very beneficial for m, although I could be present only at a few selected lectures. Nevertheless, this was not the only and last opportunity to be involved in similar psychological project such this one. In previous blog contributions I have already mentioned our Psychology Club which is extremely active and tries to arrange as many psychological events as possible.

 

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