Honoring Their Legacy

Invitation to Dr. Earl Hopper’s Memorial

On March 28 at 14:30 CET, IAGP will hold an online memorial in remembrance of Dr. Earl Hopper, honoring a promise I made, as President, when announcing his passing.

Register on this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/GvguLPBERb2TAsVaaJh70A#/registration

Earl was not only a past President of IAGP and a world-renowned thinker whose contributions have shaped group analysis internationally. He was, above all, a man of dialogue. Deeply curious, intellectually generous, and genuinely interested in others, Earl was always willing to listen, whether to senior colleagues or to those just beginning their professional journeys. He welcomed questions, doubts, reflections, and new ideas with the same seriousness and respect, believing that thought grows in encounter. He tirelessly reminded me that dialogue is not agreement, but the courage to remain in relationship.

Earl was also a builder of bridges: between people, between institutions, between disciplines, and across cultures. His work and presence consistently opened spaces of connection where difference could be explored rather than defended against.

For this reason, IAGP will host this memorial in partnership with GASi, and with other institutions and colleagues who wish to join us, as a way of honoring Earl’s enduring legacy: his capacity to create meaningful connections and to remind us that dialogue itself is a vital professional and human practice.

Further details on how to participate will follow.

Remembering Dr. Earl Hopper

The International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes (IAGP) continues to honour the life, contributions, and enduring influence of Dr. Earl Hopper (1940–2025), former President of the IAGP and one of the most influential voices in the field of group analysis.

A distinguished scholar and generous mentor, Earl’s work profoundly shaped our understanding of groups, social processes, and the human condition.

“…however imperfect it is, it is all we have. It needs to be loved, cherished, and protected. It is so precious and intimate — and also so complex — that we must accept we are bound to fail, that imperfections are inevitable. Our task is to love the imperfect object and to care for it.
My message is this: do not give up. Do not become despondent as experience increases our awareness of failures and imperfections. Instead, move beyond them — and do the best we can.”

– Earl Hopper

Remembering Earl Hopper: Presence, Legacy, Continuity

On March 29, over 200 colleagues, friends, and trainees gathered for a memorial in honor of Dr. Earl Hopper. What emerged was not a single, fixed portrait, but a rich and complex mosaic: memories shared with generosity, reflections offered with warmth, and a collective effort to hold together the many facets of a remarkable life.

Earl Hopper was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and moved to England in 1962. As a young academic at Cambridge, he attended the historic debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. During that exchange, Earl called out from the audience: “One thing you might do, Mr Buckley, is let them vote in Mississippi!” – a moment widely remembered as a turning point. It captures something essential about him: Earl was a catalyst.

He made people feel seen and heard. “I see myself in you” he told some: Earl was building a legacy not through one successor, but through many. He could be sharply critical, yet always with a fundamentally benevolent stance. He thought deeply, lived intensely, and remained intellectually restless throughout his life. Trained first as a sociologist and later as a psychoanalyst, he became one of the most influential group analysts after Foulkes, helping to bring group analysis into the new millennium.

For me, this gathering unfolded in the shadow of another, more intimate loss. Listening to the many voices, the memories, the shared silences, something became evident: the sense that what is lost does not disappear, but changes register, continues to resonate, to live among us in new ways.

The memorial was not only the recognition of his intellectual contribution, but the experience of continuity. Senior colleagues such as Elisabeth Rohr, Christer Sandhal and Jorge Burmeister, friends such as Veronica Reed and Marcia Karp, sister institutions of IAGP such as GASi, IRGP and BPS, younger generations such as Davide, Frashia and Violeta, and family such as Rebecca spoke side by side. His legacy, of ideas, social engagement, and human commitment, is not something left behind, but remains active, transformed and alive.

Earl remains present in that movement: in the thinking, in the work, and in the many lives he touched.

We remain grateful for what we have received, and we carry forward, with responsibility, what continues to live among us.

Roberta Mineo

President of IAGP