On silence and the holocaust: A contribution to clinical theory

Wilson, Arnold

doi:10.1080/07351698509533576

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…It would appear that the phenomena of transgenerational transmission of unresolved anxiety and grief apparent in these case presentations are similar to those described in previous studies of Holocaust survival where the failure or inability to mourn loss is apparent and manifest in symptomatology (Hoppe 1968;Epstein 1979;Barocas & Barocas 1980;Davidson 1980;Bergman & Jucovy 1982;Heller 1982;Wilson 1985;Wardi 1992;Moses 1993). In presenting the cases, it might be argued that, in the third generation survivors, the symptomatology was exacerbated by the depth of repression of the previous second generation where survivor guilt had been interiorized in attacks on the self.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…However, in the 1970s clinical evidence began to accumulate which suggested that, where defences had been mobilized in survivors, symptoms began appearing in offspring as if there had been an atavistic transgenerational transmission of trauma. Attention was then turned to the second generation survivors of the Holocaust where the failure or inability to mourn the loss of relatives was apparent and manifest in symptomatology (Epstein 1979;Davidson 1980;Barocas & Barocas 1980;Bergman & Jucovy 1982;Heller 1982;Wilson 1985;Wardi 1992;Moses 1993). Moses (1993) tackled the complex question of transgenerational mourning among Jewish survivors where he contested that the inability to mourn was an impasse reached where there is an unconscious unwillingness to mourn.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Transgenerational Impact of Cultural Trauma: Linking Phenomena in Treatment of Third Generation Survivors of the Holocaust

Winship¹,

Knowles²

1996

Brit J Psychotherapy

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The long‐term impact of the Holocaust is considered with reference to material presented in the case histories of patients treated in an NHS psychotherapy department (West Berkshire). The treatment of three third generation survivors of the Holocaust is described. Insofar as it is only recently that third generation phenomena are emerging, the clinical work is experimental. In the spirit of a greater consideration of the interlace between psychoanalysis and cultural trauma (Hunter Brown 1992), this paper examines the relationship between the magnitude of a cultural trauma (and its resonance) and the time it takes for the trauma to be worked through. The implications for the treatment of survivors of other cultural atrocities, for example, the Hungerford massacre and Dunblane, are considered. A provisional psychodynamic diagnostic axiom is proposed by the authors, and it is hoped that this may be useful for other clinicians.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Transgenerational Impact of Cultural Trauma: Linking Phenomena in Treatment of Third Generation Survivors of the Holocaust

Winship¹,

Knowles²

1996

Brit J Psychotherapy

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“…Malatesta and Arnold Wilson noted in the clinical literature. For example, Wilson (1985) describes how children of survivors of the concentration camps frequently demonstrate a 'lack of affect tolerance' (the ability to sustain the feeling of an affect) around a certain type of emotional experience, particularly anxiety, depression or rage, and construe the world in ways that reflect the nature of their particular affective intolerance.…”

Section: The Dficts Of Mood (And Emotion Traits) On Cognitive Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion cognition interaction in personality development: A discrete emotions, functionalist analysis

Malatesta

Wilson

1988

British J Social Psychol

Self Cite

196

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In this paper we take a discrete emotions approach to personality development. We suggest that individual differences in affective organization, acquired during the course of development, result in affect-specific biases in expressive patterns and idiosyncratic perceptual organizations. These affective biases, which have a pervasive influence on a wide domain of individual and interpersonal behaviours, contribute to psychological continuities that we identify as emotional traits. An array of data in support of this proposition is detailed. We propose a developmental model of how such affective organizations may be established initially, and the mechanisms by which they become consolidated over time. A final section discusses broader implications for developmental theory.

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“…The nightmares so frequently reported by the children and grandchildren of survivors are thus not so much a reflection of the unconscious of the child, but an attempt to represent and come to terms with the reality of the parents’ trauma. As Wilson says, ‘we may be faced with the psychological representation of a rendition of the past upon which the bizarre logic of the nightmare reveals real events rather than the intrusion of unconscious processes’ (1985, p. 73).…”

Section: Intergenerational Trauma and The Death Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Healing the wounds of our fathers: intergenerational trauma, memory, symbolization and narrative

Connolly¹

2011

J Analytical Psychology

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This paper explores the history of psychoanalytical approaches to intergenerational trauma, both from the Freudian and from the Jungian schools, and addresses the need when we speak of intergenerational or transmitted trauma to better define the nature and the different categories of trauma with particular reference to extreme and cumulative traumas such as those experienced by the survivors of the Nazi death camps and the Russian gulags. Therapy with survivors and with their children requires a particular adaptation of analytical technique as what is at stake is not so much the analysis of the here and now of the transference and countertransference dynamics which indeed can in the early stages be counterproductive, but the capacity of the analyst to accept the reality of the trauma with all its devastating and mind-shattering emotions without losing the capacity to imagine and to play metaphorically with images, essential if the patient is to be able to create a space for representation.

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On silence and the holocaust: A contribution to clinical theory

Cited by 15 publications

References 18 publications

The Transgenerational Impact of Cultural Trauma: Linking Phenomena in Treatment of Third Generation Survivors of the Holocaust

The Transgenerational Impact of Cultural Trauma: Linking Phenomena in Treatment of Third Generation Survivors of the Holocaust

Emotion cognition interaction in personality development: A discrete emotions, functionalist analysis

Healing the wounds of our fathers: intergenerational trauma, memory, symbolization and narrative

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