When the Third is Dead: Memory,Mourning, and Witnessing in the Aftermath of the Holocaust1

The origins of psychoanalysis, as well as the concerns of our daily endeavors, center on engagement with the fate of the unbearable – be it wish, affect, or experience. In this paper, I explore psychological states and dynamics faced by survivors of genocide and their children in their struggle to sustain life in the midst of unremitting deadliness. Toward this continuous effort, I re‐examine Freud’s theoretical formulations concerning memory and mourning, elaborate André Green’s concept of the ‘Dead Mother’, and introduce more recent work on the concepts of the ‘third’ and ‘thirdness’. Throughout, my thoughts are informed by our clinical experience with the essential role of witnessing in sustaining life after massive trauma. I bring aspects of all these forms of knowing to reflections about a poem by Primo Levi entitled Unfinished business and to our own never finished business of avoiding denial while living in an age of genocide and under the aura of uncontained destructiveness.     

Traumatic stress and psychological adjustment in treatment-seeking women sexually abused in childhood: A follow-up

The objective of this study was to assess post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychological distress, and risk factors among women sexually abused in childhood (CSA) after six months in therapy. Thirty in-treatment CSA survivors reported their abuse history and filled out several questionnaires. Comparisons were made to a non-CSA in-treatment sample. Although, 50% of the CSA women still had PTSD, there was a remarkable decrease in PTSD symptoms (Cohen's d = 1.06). A considerable change in self-worth and in attachment styles was found. It was concluded that CSA survivors benefit much from 6 months of weekly treatment. However, it is recommended that treatment should continue for a still longer period.     

Theorizing Politics After Camus

Theorizing has been conceived historically in illuminative and ocular metaphors, and as an activity that occurs in a fixed and privileged relation to political society that permits a panoramic perspective. These elements of light, sight, and distance, are supportable existentially and ethically in post-war, post-Holocaust world. One of the first to explore the challenges to theorizing in this era was Albert Camus. He provided phenomenological and existential investigations of the obstacles to theorizing politics in his literary works, particularly his trilogy of novels: The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall. In this paper, I offer a reading of these novels that isolates theorizing as an activity performed not from a transcendent perceptual vantage of perfect light and vision, but from the immanent perspectives achieved in the city, among friends, or by exile.     

The Political Psychology of Evil

Fifty-eight subjects were interviewed about their concepts of evil. They include students, retirees, white collar workers, and 18 prison inmates. Many defined evil not as a moral category but as an experience of impending doom. This definition reflects and affects how many subjects experience evil as an ethical problem, leading them to "privatize" evil—experiencing it in terms of their own terror. Many have considerable difficulty connecting this experience with issues of morality and goodness. An education about evil must respectfully confront this private dimension. The same conclusion applies to how we study evil on a larger scale, such as the Holocaust. This is revealed by subjects' responses, some quite troubling, to questions about the Nazis.     

To rebuild lives: a longitudinal study of the influences of the Holocaust on relationships among three generations of women in one family

The current article presents an analysis of the life stories of three generations of women within a family headed by a Holocaust survivor. Its uniqueness lies in its double analysis of the stories told by these women, with an interval of 12 years between telling. The first series of interviews were conducted in the early 1990s within the framework of a pioneering study in which, for the first time, three generations in each of 20 families were interviewed and their narratives analyzed. The current analyses are based on the perspective that, through life narratives, it is possible to view the transformations of relationships over time and that these transformations in relationships are central to personal development. We will examine the relationships of the women in these three generations, both with significant others and with each other. We will trace processes of development and changes in these relationships over the 12 years. Finally, we will discuss the social and methodological implications of our study.     

Intergenerational transmission: The individuation process and the capacity for intimacy of adult children of holocaust survivors

This article deals with the intergenerational processes of adult children of Holocaust surviors. By exploring their level of individuation from the parental family and their capacity for intimacy with spouses, the research findings reveal that: Adult children of survivors are emotionally more interconnected to their parents than are their counterparts (using the MIS). Adult children of survivors have a lower intimacy capacity with their spouses in comparison with the control group. These findings are explained from an intergenerational perspective regarding a post-traumatic population.Received PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Current research in the individuation process throughout adulthood, and the post-traumatic effect of Holocaust survivors.     

A Voice Crying out from the Wound—with or without Words: On Trauma,Speech, and Silence1

Drawing on memory and trauma studies, psychotherapeutic research, and Holocaust testimonies (in particular those of Wiesel, Semprun, Kulka, and Appelfeld), this article explores the role of speech and silence in the process of working through severe trauma. That which seems “incommunicable” will be considered in regard to the limits of linguistic representation and the problems of communication caused by the interlocutors’ avoidance of the past. How can one ensure that recounting traumatic memories does not become an extra risk rather than a remedy?     

Attentional bias towards emotional facial expressions in survivors of dating violence

This study identified components of attentional bias (e.g. attentional vigilance, attentional avoidance and difficulty with disengagement) that are critical characteristics of survivors of dating violence (DV). Eye movements were recorded to obtain accurate and continuous information regarding attention. DV survivors with high post-traumatic stress symptoms (DV-High PTSS group; n = 20) and low post-traumatic stress symptoms (DV-Low PTSS group; n = 22) and participants who had never experienced DV (NDV group; n = 21) were shown screens displaying emotional (angry, fearful and happy) faces paired with neutral faces and negative (angry and fearful) faces paired with happy faces for 10 s. The results indicate that the DV-High PTSS group spent longer dwelling on angry faces over time compared with the DV-Low PTSS and NDV groups. This result implies that the DV-High PTSS group focused on specific trauma-related stimuli but does not provide evidence of an attentional bias towards threatening stimuli in general.     

Women,Depression and the Global Folie

No abstract available for this article.