| Abstract: | This article addresses the emotional landscape of German memory in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the Nazi past. Different narratives of memory are discussed: the collective, cultural discourse of memory in Germany today; autobiographical memory among Germans and those of German descent; and the impact of history and the role of memory in the clinical situation. Personal experience and its role in the analytic setting is examined within the context of cultural discourses that shape collective and autobiographical memory. The author draws on his experience as a psychoanalyst of German descent, and as a so-called third-generation German. Analytic work with second and third generation Holocaust survivors is discussed. Emphasis is placed on the emotional contexts of memory, and on affect states, such as shame, which challenge and complicate the navigation of history and memory, particularly in analytic interactions. |
