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The Division 39 board held a retreat for its members and the chairs of its committees on the Tuesday evening and Wednesday prior to the annual spring meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The retreat began at 5:30 Pm on Tuesday with a plenary session at which the facilitator, Macario Giraldo, introduced himself and presented his credentials. He said that he was a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst trained at the Washington School of Psychiatry, where there is a strong program in group studies in which he participated both as a candidate and a faculty member. He added that he has had many years of experience facilitating groups such as ours. He then introduced his wife, Mabelle, as his cofacilitator, and described her qualifications: an art therapist by profession, she, too, has had extensive training and experience in conducting group events. Dr. Giraldo had been introduced to the board at its January meeting in New York, where he had asked the members to reflect on their experiences as psychoanalysts “at this time in your practice; at this time in your life; and at this time in the American culture” in preparation for the retreat.
The initial large group meeting was held in a spacious ballroom at the La Fonda Hotel. The chairs had been prearranged in an oval configuration, and people sat wherever they chose. The participants engaged in a lot of greetings and informal conversation, paying scant, if any, attention to the stipulated 5:30 Pm start of the session. Several minutes beyond the planned starting time, when it seemed as though the group would not, itself, assume the responsibility for beginning to work, Macario raised his voice to request attention, and delivered the information about himself and his wife described in the first paragraph.
At this point, Henry Seiden observed that the oval described by the seating was far too large for comfortable communication, and he asked whether we might tighten it by removing some of the unused chairs and bringing the ones