We invite you to participate in a new meeting of the Reader's Club of the Department of Ethnopsychology and Psychological Problems of Multicultural Education, Faculty of Social Psychology, MSUPE, which will take place online on March 10 at 7:00 PM. The head of the Reader's Club is Professor of the Department of Ethnopsychology, O.S. Pavlova. The club's facilitator is Valentina Otmani – orientalist, psychologist, systemic family therapist, researcher, and graduate of the Master's program "Practical Ethnopsychology." The meeting's theme is: "The Art of Forgetting and the Art of Remembering: Through Life's Vicissitudes and Generations."
This time, we will discuss the book "The Art of Losing" (L'Art de perdre). The author is Alice Zeniter, a French writer of Algerian origin. The book portrays the complex fate of three generations of one Algerian family: how their attitude towards their roots, a once-alien culture, historical heritage, new trends, and both close and distant relatives changed over time.
We are all heirs to the multi-generational experience of our families. What happens when a family is forced to flee and escape? Or, conversely, decides to stay at all costs? How does this affect relationships within the family, and how is it reflected in the interactions of people from different generations? What do members of older generations want (or do they want?) to pass on, and what motivates the younger ones?
Initially, when we start reading this book, it might seem like a story about one Algerian family. But no, it is about each of us – for we are all woven from the experience of our ancestors. But what if our ancestors mastered the art of losing? Who are we then, and what is our path?
We invite you to join the discussion and look at your own family's life journey through the lens of cross-cultural psychology. Our inspiration will be "The Art of Losing" by A. Zeniter and the writer's biography.
Participation in the Reader's Club will not only be a good opportunity to get acquainted with a distant culture but will also serve as an introduction to the methodology of conducting reader's clubs within the narrative approach as a form of group work.