We are pleased to announce the 3rd Panhellenic Symposium of the Institute for Relational and
Group Psychotherapy , which will take place online in English on
February 5–6 and in person in
Athens in Greek on February 7–8, 2026. This year’s Symposium is titled:
“The Social Unconscious and Fatherhood:
Relational Psychoanalysis and Group Psychotherapy”
The Symposium aims to illuminate the multidimensional aspects of fatherhood — psychic,
social, institutional, and cultural — through the lens of relational psychoanalytic and
group psychotherapeutic thinking,
with a direct link to the concept of the “group turn” in relational psychoanalysis
(Charalambides, 2024). The social unconscious, as described by Εarl Hopper and further
developed in post-institutional and
intergenerational readings, constitutes a reservoir of collective memory and trauma that
structures the symbolic presence and absence of the paternal figure.
Fatherhood is approached not only as an imaginary and intrapsychic construct, but also as a
socially and historically produced subjectivity. We aim to highlight how paternal
representations are inscribed within
psychic structures and collective fantasies — often as embodiments of authority, loss, or
desire — and to focus on the mechanisms through which fatherhood is reconstructed in
postmodern forms of kinship and
identity.
The Symposium addresses mental health professionals, psychoanalysts, group
psychotherapists, students, trainees, as well as all those interested in
exploring fatherhood as a field where clinical
practice, social
theory, and cultural representation converge.
Note: Special mention will be made of the contribution of the “group turn”
in relational psychoanalysis, including dialogues based on Stavros Charalambides’ works
“The Executioner of
Envy” (2022) and
Note: Special mention will be made of the contribution of the “group
turn” in relational psychoanalysis, including dialogues based on Stavros Charalambides’
works “The Executioner of
Envy” (2022) and “The
Servants of Rage”
Note: Special mention will be made of the contribution of the “group
turn” in relational psychoanalysis, including dialogues based on Stavros Charalambides’
works “The Executioner of
Envy” (2022) and (2025), as well as the two collective volumes on
Relational Psychoanalysis and Group Psychotherapy published by Disigma (2023, 2024), in
which the shift of relational
psychoanalytic theory from
the intersubjective dyad to the polycentric dynamic of institution, group, and social field
is evident.
Main Themes of the Symposium
• Institution, Power, and Fatherhood: The notion of the
“paternal Law” in classical psychoanalysis and its re-signification
through relational and group analytic approaches. Paternal representation as a vehicle of
institutional transmission and organizational fantasy.
• Sibling Associations in the Presence and Absence of the
Father: The emergence of horizontal transference within group and institutional
settings. The role of sibling transference in
the construction of fatherhood.
• The Trauma of Father Loss: Intergenerational repercussions
and multiple psychic processes of working through the absence of paternal function, with an
emphasis on mourning and
regressions.
• Patriarchy and Misandry in Feminism: A critical and
reflective mapping of the paternal figure within contemporary feminist discourse. The need
for a relational, non-retributive
feminism that embraces the emotional complexity of fatherhood.
• The Notion of Father in LGBTQIA2S+ Families: New forms of
fatherhood and representations of paternal function within diverse family structures.
Rearticulating the role of the father
in the social unconscious of multiparental identity.
• Institutional Illiteracy and Fatherhood in Psychoanalytic and Group
Therapy Institutes: This unit explores how therapeutic institutions embody — or
fail to embody — “paternal
functions.” The inability to process transference phenomena leads to authoritarianism or
passive disconnection. Institutional silence and rigidity reproduce patterns of paternal
absence or punishment. Readings of
fatherhood as institutional responsibility are proposed.
• Charalambides, S. (2017). The Group in Two Minds: Sibling and Group-as-a-Whole
Transference and Countertransference. Group, 41(3), 229–242.
• Charalambides, S. (2022). Ο δήμιος του φθόνου: Ψυχοθεραπευτικά ταξίδια στο άβατον. Αθήνα:
Εκδόσεις Δίσιγμα.
• Charalambides, S. (2025). Τα δουλικά του μένους. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Δίσιγμα.
• Charalambides, S. (2024). Relational Psychoanalytic Sessions as Large Group Therapy with
Two Representatives. Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 21(1), 52–70.