This is part of a conjoint project to strengthen collaboration between theBowlby Centre (BC), the Institute of Group Analysis (IGA), Supporting Relationships and Families (SRF) and the International Attachment Network (IAN).

Speakers: Begum Maitra, Maria Canete and Arturo Ezquerro

Convenors: Maria Canete and Arturo Ezquerro

Chair: Elaine Arnold (SRF)

Brexit has been described as an all-out digital war (Shipman, 2016) and as the ‘uncivil war’ (in a drama-film directed by Toby Haynes). It resembles the English civil war, when families and friends found themselves split between King and Parliament. As part of his ‘do or die’, Boris Johnson is flirting with the idea of suspending Parliament by ‘constitutional’ royal prerogative. But Rory Stewart is responding with the counter-idea of organising an alternative parliament with digital technology, as USA and China play their war games.

After the referendum, it came to light that Vote Leave spent some £650,000 over the legal limit by fraudulently channelling money into BeLeave. The cash went into digital advertising, targeting people on their psychological profiles, which had been built through Facebook and other digital databanks without their consent. The information was sold to Cambridge Analytica and to Aggregate IQ, hired by Vote Leave to target voters. And they won the war, or did they?

A ‘hybrid’ workshop aiming to explore the impact of digital wars and digital addictions on attachment relationships, in families and wider groups. Delegates will be encouraged to take an active part in the reflective space provided by professionally conducted, large and small, discussion groups.