History of Group Analysis in Albania
The impossible can be possible
10 years after the dictatorship fall, in 2000 the first generation of psychologists were graduated in the University of Tirana, the major of the few public universities in Albania at that time, in the Faculty of Social Sciences. This Faculty opened in 1991, initially named Faculty of Social Work and provided educational programs in Social Work and Philosophy-Sociology. One year after, it was renamed as the Faculty of Social Sciences and was composed by three departments: the social work, the psychology-pedagogy and Philosophy-Sociology, this later a reformed version of the former one during the communism period.
Psychology was until this moment an unknown science, or mostly related to the pedagogy theory and practice. Those who had knowledges about Freudian theories or ideas had to keep them secret and not to share with the others in an open way. When the first psychologists and social workers entered in the psychiatric milieu, some of the psychiatrists would say proudly that the “only one who knew Freud first and tried to “apply” some of his ideas with patients was a senior psychiatrist”.
Personally, I met Freud through literature. During the high school years, reading was a very useful protection from the ugly reality full of financial difficulties for many families, moral chaos, unsafety, uncertainty and many illusions. “We want Albania as all Europe” was the slogan of those years. None had idea how this could happen, it was just a naïve wish. It was “Freud” by S. Zweig the book who incepted in me the curiosity about psychology and the projection of myself as a pain healer. After that I started to read every Freud’s book translated and published in Albania, but unfortunately, they were not translated as well as Zweig was. Talking about Freud, admiring, criticizing him would remain easer than reading and understanding him for next years of my education.
In 1997, while this first group of psychologists had just started their training the most traumatic events in the post-dictatorial period of the history of Albania occurred. What was called a Civil War and it is known by the world as such was not exactly a civil war. There was nothing “civil” in that. It was a real nightmare; the death drive was walking in the streets of the towns of Albania. Precipitated by the fall of the pyramidal schemes, the economic damage was severe for many Albanian families and fatal for some of them. People who had lost money, power, job, illusions, serenity had the opportunity to have guns in their hands as a result of the opening of the weapons storages from who knows why and who. Those who chose to have guns, to keep and use them regained thus something lost. Those who didn’t choose to take a Kalashnikov in their house remained with what they had lost and the risk to lose more.
It was as living in a preverbal stage. Paradoxicality was normal. The Kalashnikov shots’ sound was the sound of that time. In many towns was established a very wired routine of shooting every evening after the sunset reminding the chorus in Greek antique tragedies singing to gods, asking for help since the human reason and sanity was quite lost. This was the carrefour time and the spectacle of Kalashnikov shots in the same time, or as it would be in a horror movie the time for vampires to go out for hunting. Many innocent and delinquent people were killed in these crazy months, and the terrible sound effect of those guns used purposely or just for fun echoed for many years later in Albanian lives.
Years after the Albanian people developed another custom, that of lighting firecrackers during all the December or even before, anticipating the holiday season. We had to live with this custom until very recently when some law changes happened. Now, there were the children and teenagers who enjoyed so much scaring people in the streets with the abrupt noise of the firecracker, those who in 1997 most probably were new babies or still in their mom’s womb. The need for repetition something unable to be verbalized, perhaps, was the reason behind this behavior.
In 2000 when the first clinical psychologists were graduated in Albania, a reform in the psychiatric service had already started as an initiative of the WHO – Albanian and the Ministry of Health. This reform aimed the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients through the development of alternative services as Community Center for Mental Health, Residential and Day Center. This reform happening was a good timing for the development of the psychotherapy in Albania. It was the need for well trained professionals who would help the process of introducing a new approach to the mental ill people and to the existing mental health professionals and social environment, which made possible the start of a training in Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. This training was provided by the European Association for Psychotherapy with the initial support of the WHO-Albania and financially fully covered by the trainees.
In 2007 a group of 14 mental health professionals were certified as psychoanalytic/psychodynamic psychotherapist. Some of them started to practice as psychotherapists, some of them went to live abroad and some stopped practicing psychotherapy. One of them started his life in UK, the one who would come back years after to begin another chapter of psychotherapy in Albania, that of the Group Analysis.
Sporadically in the following years few people were qualified and graduated abroad in European Universities. The academic curricula in the Public and new private Psychology Schools began to be dominated by the Cognitive Behavioral approach. This influenced the education of some young professionals in the CBT school in the last decade parallel to the development of psychodrama, body psychotherapy, Adlerian therapy and only recently schema therapy and EMDR therapy. Actually, in Albania there are not trained professionals in couple therapy, family therapy, working with teens, as well as there are a lot of psychologists untrained in any psychotherapy training who have opened a private clinic and see patients with no supervision.
In December 2014, 7 years ago, Bob (Robert) Harris an IGA member was invited to have a speech about the Group Analysis in the 2nd Congress of Psychotherapy in Albania. This invitation came as a result of some previous ideation and planning discussions of a group of psychotherapists, members of Albanian Association for Pychotherapy led by Anxhela Gramo (the current chair of the Group Analysis in Albania) on further training on supervision or group therapy. This idea seemed to be incepted in a professional discussion between Anxhela and Erald Bekteshi, one of the abovementioned qualified psychotherapists who moved to London with his family and became himself group analyst trainee. This group of psychotherapists were very doubtful about the possibility of development of the group therapy in our country. “Suggesting to patients to be treated in a group of Albanian people?”, “Don’t’ even think about”, “Ok, maybe group supervision, yes, it’s a good idea, but so many years of training to go there… no, better no”, “Group therapy in Albania where everyone knows everyone is an impossible mission”. These were some of the opinions shared in that “historical discussion”. Besides myself, Anxhela and Erald, no one else was interested to go for this project. Anyhow, the idea and the wish for this training blossomed outside this group very gradually especially with the persisting work of Anxhela, who used all her personal and professional network in order to make possible the start of a series of introductory weekends finalizing with the official start of the Foundation Year in 2016 with a group of 15 participants. In 2016 was also established the association “Group analysis Albania” to take over not only the project of this training but to develop further the group analysis in Albania.
In the autumn of 2019, the Qualification Course approved by the IGA London UK, directed by Bob Harris, with the engagement of Val Parker and Eugene Clerkin as training group analysts, and of Sue Einhorn and Angelika Golz as training supervisors finally started. The number of students was already reduced. The time in between these phases had caused its loss. All of the trainees are women. Some of them used to know each other in other settings before the training, and some of them had close relationship going on. “The impossible” was present. A lot of such dynamics had to be administrated. As the custom is, since we are in Albania and Balkan, before the first block would take place, an earthquake occurred in Tirana in the middle of the Shadow Workshop. This was only the prelude of another stronger one in November, two days after the second block of training. A very shocking experience, which arose a lot of insecurity, unsafety issues, flight reactions, helplessness feelings and a big question of what’s worthy in this training. Another block weekend in the sunny and polluted Tirana, and the next block had to be online via zoom as the Pandemic started and most of the world was quarantined inside walls, windows and screens. A lot of resistance against this obligatory change of therapeutic and training setting was expressed by the trainees. Three members dropped out during these two years. The good side of the online learning experience was the opportunity for all the trainees to take part in pretty much more online events than would be possible in the live version. A lot of exchange between trainees from different countries, and between different groups and organizations was made possible. Membership of Group Analysis Albania (GAA) at GASI and EGATIN was a great opportunity for its members to feel the lost connectedness and belonging during Pandemic.
Actually, the Qualification Course is in its third year. The number of trainees is reduced from 12 to 9. Four group analysis trainees have started running their groups during 2021 and the rest is struggling with the group formation. Along with this, an experience of community groups started in 2018 until nowadays as a means to reach the community through “group being” and “group thinking” as well as to help the trainees to catch the huge range of the variety and complexity of the group dynamics and shapes. In 2017 the first large group was held in one public youth center in Tirana in the mental health day – a lot of young people, mental health professionals among them, gathered to talk about drug’s use and mental health. This meeting was followed by bimonthly community group meetings in another youth center. It seems like the youth is the only safe space where the newness’ growth and development can be held. The participants in these medium to small groups are young people as well, most of them young women, but not only women. There were the efforts of mostly a small group of trainees which kept alive this activity despite what happened: the earthquake and the lock down due to the Covid 19 pandemic. This autumn the community group activity started its third year with more maturity and thoughtfulness.
All this happened during the long governance of the Socialist Party, three mandates in a row, not necessarily because of the good governance, but possibly because of the lack of a good enough opposition. With no doubts this period of time could be called as the “just do it” and “let’s not think” years of the history of this country. The transitional phase is still in process, part of which includes the endless construction and reconstruction of new buildings, new roads, etc., which means an unceasing deconstruction of the old. No time to think about anything. There is a rush to make money by whatever means and disregarding to any moral and ethical principle. One of the slogans of the PM during the election was “There is no time to rest, only work, work, work”. It seems a good and motivational sentence, but it implies as well the urge to act and not to think, not to make questions, and not to waste time waiting for answers.
In this last decade the number of young professionals migrating to European countries, especially Germany, as well as in USA is highly increased. Along with the unemployment, the domestic violence, the human trafficking of children are some of the deepest wounds of the society as the drug/alcohol misuse and gambling are destroying quite a lot of families’ equilibrium. The education system is failing to find out the fittest system trying for many years one reform after another. The corruption in public health system remains still one of the reasons why young people choose another country to settle down in a safer environment. Mental health issues don’t belong to the concerns of the Ministry of Health for more than 10 years now. Public mental health services are almost inexistent, although fortunately mental health professionals are available and willing to contribute in those public services where they are actually employed. The justice system? Some serious anti-corruptive processes are in progress, but the loss of hope in justice is deeply rooted. Hopelessness and helplessness are the two main orienteers of many of the behavioral and style lives of people at different ages.
Becoming a group analyst in this background, and in this strange time the world is, arise a lot of questions. What is the worth of working with groups? Why groups when distance between people and countries is emphasized? How helpful can group analysis be in Albania? Certainly, there is a lot to be discovered, to be thought about, to be noted and reflected upon. So far, our experience as the object of the above history, as trainees of this training, as travelers of this journey, as traumatized and retraumatized people, as depressed as we are, has shown that we, our people, need to learn to think and to remember. Just acting seems so easy and simple, though very dangerous and damaging as a gun shot just for fun, but the blind bullet of which reaches a kid playing in his yard. To think and reflect, to remember what has happened seems sometimes unbearably impossible.
One of our famous writers said “There are words that cry, and there are tears that speak”. Translation of tears in words and connecting words with emotions, transformation of the collective amnesia in memory is what group processes can attain. The impossible can happen.
Sonila Mecaj
sonilamecaj@hotmail.com
