The Scandinavians Rehearse the Liberation

Abstract

This article reports some aspects of the third Mini-Society sponsored by Gunnar Hjelholt of Denmark. The distinctive quality of the event is that it allows experimental behaviour, mutual exploration, and confrontation between groups. Since the characteristics of the groups involved are meaningful in terms of problems emerging in society today, the themes which spontaneously engaged the groups and the dynamics which arose can throw new light on these problems. The theme illustrated here is the confrontation between the demand for personal liberation from the "destructive alienation" of the conventional demands of society and the fear of chaos and social breakdown. As this confrontation was acted out, the two groups directly involved tended to force each other into self-caricature and out of communication with the other, and to induce a growing paralysis or disruption in the other groups in the community. That one of these other groups experienced suffering passivity and high community visibility is seen as a necessary condition for the developments between the two confronting groups.