| SPEAKERS OF THE 11TH SYMPOSIUM
DR. ZORAN MILIVOJEVIĆ
President of the Serbian Union of Associations of Psychotherapists.
Lecture
“Processes of Dehumanisation and Rehumanisation in a Situation of War.”
In wartime, the perception of the enemy becomes inevitably dehumanized. Members of the opposing group are seen as dangerous and evil - often as less worthy, or even as having no value at all. This is rooted in the nature of war itself, which brings death and destruction and, at the individual level, ultimately comes down to killing another human being. As long as a soldier can identify with the opposing soldier, killing is accompanied by guilt. However, once the image of the other is dehumanised, killing the enemy can be experienced as morally justified - and even as a source of pride.
Dehumanisation can be understood at both the individual and social levels. Individually, it manifests as indifference (a lack of sympathy and empathy), contempt, and hatred. Socially, especially in pre-war and wartime contexts, it becomes a broader phenomenon shaped by powerful forces such as explicit and implicit propaganda, interpersonal dynamics, and social pressure. In such circumstances, dehumanising the enemy may come to be seen as a civic duty, while those who continue to recognize the humanity of the other risk being viewed as disloyal and, even, as traitors.
The image of the enemy loses nuance and internal differences. The idea that “they are all the same” becomes dominant, forming the basis for attributing collective guilt. Since war involves two sides – “us” and “them” – this process unfolds simultaneously on both sides, often following a dynamic of “persecuting the persecutor.”
When hostilities end, dehumanised perceptions tend to persist. A slow process of rehumanisation then begins, gradually rebuilding trust. Although some individuals and groups continue to dehumanize the other group, their influence typically diminishes over time. Rehumanisation requires sustained, conscious effort at both individual and societal levels, restoring the capacity to see the other as human rather than as an enemy. Rehumanisation is a slow and demanding process that calls for conscious effort at both individual and societal levels, through which the other can gradually reappear – not as an enemy, but as a human being.
Zoran Milivojević, MD, is a psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer, and author. He serves as President of the Serbian Union of Associations of Psychotherapists. He was the first professional in Eastern Europe to attain the highest qualification in Transactional Analysis – Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst in Psychotherapy.
He is the author of nine books and the author of a comprehensive theory of emotions within psychotherapy. In 1990, prior to the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia, he was among the founders of the initiative “Physicians for the Prevention of War,” the only joint initiative bringing together Serbian and Croatian physicians. He is also the originator of the concept of “social psychotherapy,” which involves the use of mass media by psychotherapists to promote and strengthen public mental health. In addition to his psychotherapeutic, educational, and supervisory work, he is a public figure and activist.
PROFESSOR JOSEF ESTERMANN
Philosopher and Theologian, Focused on Latin America.
Lecture
“Humanity Under Pressure: some remarks from Indigenous Thinking and Dialogical Philosophy.”
Actually, we are confronted with a growing number of wars, genocides, civil wars and huge movements of refugees, due to authoritarian, fascist and dictatorial government all over the world. The counter-values the leaders of many countries, including democratic ones, promote, reveal a new anthropology based on the power of the fittest, of the ones with more money and arms. Humanity, as it is conceived in most religious traditions, the Enlightenment and indigenous spiritualities, has become obsolete and under great pressure. It seems that human dignity and the fundamental equality of human beings are no longer guaranteed, not only in situation of war as in the Ukraine or Iran, but also in most democracies and civil societies. I'd like to contrast this panorama by two philosophical anthropologies which defend human dignity and the principle of equivalence among persons despite their differences: Indigenous Andean philosophy of South America, and Emmanuel Levinas' anthropology of alterity.
Professor Josef Estermann. Born in Switzerland in 1956, with a long career in the Andean region, he holds a doctorate in philosophy and a degree in theology. He worked in a poor neighborhood in Cusco, Peru (1990–1998), focusing on Liberation Theology. He served as director of the Missio e.V. Institute of Missiology (MWI) in Aachen, Germany (1998–2004), and as a professor and researcher at the Andean Ecumenical Higher Institute of Theology (ISEAT), at the Bolivian Catholic University “San Pablo” (UCB), at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), and at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (UASB) in La Paz, Bolivia (2004–2012). From 2012 to 2021, he worked as head of Fieldwork & Research with Comundo at “Casa Romero” and as a lecturer at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland). Today he is retired and committed to a better world.
The author’s major works (most in Spanish or German): “Andean Philosophy: Indigenous Wisdom for a New World” (1998; 2006; 2018); “Andean Theology: The Diverse Fabric of Indigenous Faith” (Ed.) (2006); “If the South were the North: Intercultural chakanas between the Andes and the West” (2008); “Interculturality: Living Diversity” (2010); “Compendium of Western Philosophy from an Intercultural Perspective” in five volumes (2011); “Cross and Coca: Toward the Decolonization of Religion and Theology” (2013); “Beyond the West: Philosophical Notes on Interculturality, Decolonization, and the Andean ‘Living Well’” (2015); “Why the South is under: Intercultural contributions to decoloniality and well living” (2019); “Overcoming Eurocentrism: Selected Texts” (2023); “Dominance and Liberation: Fifty years of Liberation Theology – a balance” (2025).
DR. MARINA MOJOVIĆ
President of the Serbian Union of Associations of Psychotherapists.
Lecture
“Searching for Oases of Humanness throughout the Fields of War Destructiveness.”
Edgar Morin, among the most prominent global philosophers and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Complex Thinking (105 years old), in his “Crises of Humanity Failing to Become Humanizing,” advocates the creation of oases of fellowship with relative autonomy devoted to solidarity and the overcoming of hatred. Despite horrendous surroundings, engaged psychotherapists often weave oases of humanness, even if not fully aware of. However, unconsciously, we can also easily get taken over by various “vicious spirals” of the fields.
Unfortunately, psychotherapists in our country had already learned throughout the Nineties, in the first War in Europe after WWII (Destruction of Yugoslavia and NATO Bombing of Serbia) to learn-through-experience how to work in extreme situations. Due to widely traumatized citizenship, among other factors, in our efforts to apply psychoanalytic and group-analytic fields more broadly, we established new methods, including the voluntary Reflective Citizens Koinonia Method, International Reflective Citizens, and cooperation with “sibling” methods, such as the Sandwich model (Friedman, 2025). The latter is throughout the years of the Ukraine war organized continuously for psychotherapists in Ukraine by our senior colleague Taras Levin from Kiev together with group-analysts from many countries. From EFPP we organized immediately an international online weekly large group-analytic group (I co-conducted over few months), as well as discussion groups and other work groups in cooperation with EGATIN and IAGP. Our institutions provide certain “reflections spaces” (Levin,2025), although much more is needed.
In times of war destructiveness and of other escalating poli-crises, as psychotherapists, we need to continue jointly creating oases of humanness both in our institutions and throughout the wider fields.
Marina Mojović, MA, MD, psychiatrist, training group analyst, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, supervisor, and organizational consultant in Serbia in her private practice. She is the founder and director of the Belgrade “School for Integrative Group Analysis Koinonia-Art”, president of the Psychotherapy Section in the Serbian Medical Society, member of the Serbian Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
She is the Founder of the Reflective Citizens Koinonia Method (RC) of working voluntary with citizens groups (since the late Nineties) and the International Reflective Citizens (IRC since 2020) with branches spreading in several countries. She is a full member of the International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes and member of its Group Section team, European Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (and delegate for Serbia), International Society for Psychoanalytic Studies of Organizations, Organization for Promoting Understanding of Society, International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and Group Analytic Society International, where she was member of management committee.
In Group Analytic Society-Belgrade founder of its Section and Training in ‘Psychoanalytic and Group Analytic Approach to Understanding Institutions, Organizations and Society’, Training for Conveners of Systems-psychodynamic groups, Training for Conductors of Large Groups and a co-founder of the Section for ‘Large and Median Groups’.
She founded the Training program for conductors of large groups, co-conducts a monthly large group (now hybrid) for nine years with participants from various countries; co-conducted large groups on international conferences. She founded the Reflective Citizens Training Program, Belgrade Social Dreaming Training, develops the Applied and Traveling Reflective Citizens projects, and other projects of exploring the Social Unconscious in Serbia and abroad. In the Koinonia-Art Training Community she organized a number of international conferences and workshops. Presents, and publishes internationally in areas of the Social Trauma, Social Unconscious and Large groups, conceptualized the ‘Social-Psychic Retreats’, ‘Conception Trauma’ of organizations and societies, ‘Internationalization’ in the Spiraling Dialectics through Tripartite Matrices.
OLEKSANDR MIRONENKO
MD, Senior Lecturer at the Ukrainian Catholic University.
Lecture
“Homo Homini… Humanness in Inhuman Conditions.”
The presentation begins with the notion “Homo Homini Homo Est”. Human beings need another human being. The experiences of Solidarity and Competition on different levels – interpersonal, group and social are discussed. Especially in the context of lack of solidarity in modern world and the special value of solidarity in times of war, Humanness is not an individual experience but interpersonal and intersubjective. Different experiences of Humanness during the war in Ukraine will be presented.
Oleksandr Mironenko, MD. Senior Lecturer at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Registrar of the NAO of the UUAP.
