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The Australian Institute of Socio-Analysis (AISA) was established in Victoria, Australia in 1983 (it was then known as the Australian Institute of Social Analysis). Each year AISA has sponsored or cosponsored at least one major group relations conference (and usually other major programmes) in the tradition that emanated from the Tavistock Institute, London. This framework, which emerged from the work of Wilfred Bion, A. K. Rice and others over the past 55 years, has developed and grown internationally and has had a strong base in Australia.
In this paper, I will examine in what I hope is a socio-analytic way, key themes of the major Australian conferences as described in the conference brochures. I will try to identify trends in the conference themes that illustrate the growth of the ‘socio-analytic mind’ in Australia. In the late 1990s the term ‘socio-analysis’ was applied by Alastair Bain, Director of AISA, to the framework which had been developing in Australia. This framework synthesised thinking from group relations, systems theory, organisation development, social dreaming and psychoanalysis.
I will consider whether particular qualities can be discerned in these themes that might both relate to Australian organisational life (and what this might mean) and might reflect the concerns of contemporary Australian organisations. I will briefly consider the role AISA may play in organisational life in Australia; and try to weigh up whether the history of group relations conferences in Australia can suggest future directions for AISA and for Australian organisations. The analysis will