Convergent PCA Large Group dedicated to the conflict in Ukraine
at the Cross-Cultural Communication International Workshop,
Pécs, Hungary, August 15-21, 2022

We would like to dedicate the Convergent Large Group of our 2022 Cross-Cultural Communication International Workshops in Pécs, Hungary to a facilitated meeting in which all participants – including Ukrainians and Russians – would be invited to discuss all past and present issues culminating in the current conflict in hope that it may serve as an example for future peaceful dialogues.

All Russian and Ukrainian citizens may participate at the weeklong workshop for free, given that they participate in the Large Groups.
(Participants will have to pay for meals and accommodation.)

Background

Person Centered Approach (PCA) Workshops were initiated half a century ago by Carl Rogers and his co-workers. There are generally small groups, topic groups, paper presentations, experiential activities, and recreational activities. But “it is the large group meeting of all participants that might be described as the one major activity of person-centered community groups” (Bozarth, 1992). Small groups and large community meetings are expressions of PCA’s basic premise: the natural growth process of individuals and of the universe. There are usually facilitators, but they are “willing to go with the directions and pace of the group”.

At the Cross-Cultural Communication Workshop organized in Szeged, Hungary in 1984 the possibility of a more “formal” activity during one of the large groups emerged and was called a “convergent meeting”: a meeting during which the group would create something. We decided to keep this tradition alive during the last thirteen years at our international workshops.

The 2022 International Workshop and the War

Another tradition of the PCA movement is to look at these meetings as opportunities “for resolving international frictions, or as a new paradigm of controlling the evil in human nature”. Rogers contemplated having a meeting of this kind with 400 members of the elected European Parliament, and in 1985 organized a meeting for active politicians of the nations involved in the Nicaraguan conflict.

It is a great human catastrophe that we experience – through the media – in Ukraine. We sincerely hope that at the time we meet (on August 15) this horrifying event will have been over for a while. But the human consequences will certainly remain with us for much longer. Rogers proposed person-centered efforts for avoiding “planetary nuclear suicide”. Raskin and Zucconi (1984) said that “when a receptive group in conflict is provided with facilitative conditions akin to therapeutic empathy, congruence and caring, negative stereotypes of the opposition weaken and are replaced by personal, human feelings of relatedness”.

If you wish to:
● participate
● learn more about the event
● ask a question related to the event

please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

David Klein
organizer
+36 30 256 0960
david.klein@edge2000.hu