Tesla transformers in the analytic fields in Serbia

Abstract

ABSTRACT The images of the Serbian-American scientist Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) often emerge in the analytic fields in Serbia, especially when they become paralyzed with feelings of hopelessness, despair and injustice. Tesla as a figure from the social unconscious becomes a sort of a ‘helper’ in the process of transformation of the field towards more hope and faith. This is not only due to Tesla images being used as metaphors, but also catalysing interactions in and between the fields, helping the transition from states of paralysis with annihilation anxieties towards livelier ones. Pichon Riviere’s concepts of the spiral dialectics in transformation of the malignant repetitive circles into more benign is used for revealing changes of the most difficult – the bizarre ‘black holes’ in the fields. Vignettes from clinical group analysis and psychosocial work of the Reflective Citizens are presented as illustrations. Putting ‘social creativity’ and the ‘paradigm of complexity’ to work in dealing with social trauma in the Balkans is described -different fields inter-link to give meaning across different paradigms.