To commit or not commit to human life: Children of victims and victimizers?All

Charny, Israel W.

doi:10.1007/bf00891710

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Is the task of therapy with survivors merely to render the forgotten memorable: the unspoken narrated? Perhaps so, and in so doing there is sufficient evidence that survivors themselves possess a wish to speak out when the social context of survival permits it (Charny, 1990). This means that a more comfortable survival can come naturally into being when conditions mean that the unspoken is given a social voice.…”

Section: Integrating Paradigmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threads from the labyrinth: therapy with survivors of war and political oppression

Woodcock

2001

Journal of Family Therapy

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War and political atrocity are endemic, and the denial of what has befallen survivors who become refugees has both therapeutic and human rights dimensions. The work described in this article considers the psychological and political aspects of the suppression of memory and culture and how psychotherapy engages with these processes. Narrative, in its customary form as the creation of stories, is discussed as one of the ways of enabling survivors to be given a voice that allows them to process events of atrocity, displacement and exile. The usefulness of psychoanalytic ideas and their integration with systemic practice is demonstrated. The interplay between difficult psychotherapeutic material, the patient or family and the therapist is shown and the use of supervision noted. The discussion is exemplified with descriptions of therapeutic work with individuals, families and small groups. The thinking that emerges is applicable not only to work with survivors but has general implications for systemic work in general as it struggles with its contemporary identity.The work described in this article was carried out at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, London, where I work as a psychotherapist with families, couples, individuals and groups. The Medical Foundation offers holistic psychosocial help to survivors of torture and organized violence. The majority of people who seek our help are refugees and asylum seekers, although we also work with former prisoners of war, aid workers and travellers who have been abducted.

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Section: Integrating Paradigmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threads from the labyrinth: therapy with survivors of war and political oppression

Woodcock

2001

Journal of Family Therapy

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“…"Victim families" consisted of Holocaust survivors (first generation), their adult children (second generation), and their grandchildren (third generation). Characteristically, the first generation parents attempted to keep details of their traumatic past hidden from the second generation, wanting to spare them from having to learn horrid details about the family's history (Charny, 1990;Rosenthal, 2002). For many reasons, including survivor guilt, the survivors could not bring themselves to talk about their traumatic experiences but faced a silencing within their communities (Barocas & Barocas, 1979;Bar-On, 1993;Kaslow, 1995) that prevented them from working through their past.…”

Section: Three Generations Of Survivor and Perpetrator Families: Transgenerational Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunities for Mourning When Grief is Disenfranchised: Descendants of Nazi Perpetrators in Dialogue with Holocaust Survivors

Livingston

2010

Omega (Westport)

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This article explores the concepts of unmourned and disenfranchised grief as a way to understand the experiences of adult children of Nazi perpetrators, who grew up with cultural norms of grieving alone or in silence. The scholarly literature on descendants of Nazis reflects a group unlikely to warrant empathy or support from others because of the stigma surrounding their family's possible involvement in the Holocaust atrocities. This article uses, as a case study approach, the testimony given by Monika Hertwig, the adult daughter of a high ranking Nazi, who appears in the documentary film, Inheritance. From the perspective of disenfranchised grief, defined as grief that is not socially recognized or supported, the article links Monika's testimony with existing research from in-depth interviews with other descendants of Nazis to suggest that, as a group, they lacked permission to grieve their deceased parents, acknowledgment of their grief, and opportunities to mourn. Based on the theory that the effects of grief can be transgenerational, the disenfranchisement experienced by the "children of the Third Reich" does not have to pass to subsequent generations if opportunities for mourning are made possible and some resolution of grief occurs. Studies have shown that ongoing dialogue groups between Holocaust survivors and descendants of Nazis provide opportunities for mourning to both groups.

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“…Dealing with the enormity of genocide, which touched the survival of Israel's people, is a central theme in the existential reality of Israeli society (Charny, 1990b). Of particular relevance to family psychology are the Holocaust survivors who participated in establishing the state.…”

Section: The Holocaust and Family Psychology Conceptualizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family psychology from an Israeli perspective.

Halpern

2001

American Psychologist

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A perspective of family psychology in Israel is drawn against a background of evolving indigenous elaboration suited to Israel's unique circumstances (J. I. Good & A. Ben-David, 1995). Its development shows a progression from the original source of an enriching but dominant culture (J. J. Gergen, A. Gulerce, A. Lock, & G. Misra, 1996; E. Halpern, 1985) to a discipline growing within the Israeli geopolitical reality, constraints of academic infrastructures, and training resources. One can currently recognize a discipline that is increasingly congruent with its cultural texture as well as the histories and traditions of individual families in a multifaceted society. This evolution is thought to bear similarities to the course that family therapy originally took and to where the roots of family psychology can be found. To echo F. W. Kaslow's (1987, 1991) analysis of this evolution in the United States, the heritage of family psychology in Israel also basically lies in mainstream psychology.

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To commit or not commit to human life: Children of victims and victimizers?All

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Threads from the labyrinth: therapy with survivors of war and political oppression

Threads from the labyrinth: therapy with survivors of war and political oppression

Opportunities for Mourning When Grief is Disenfranchised: Descendants of Nazi Perpetrators in Dialogue with Holocaust Survivors

Family psychology from an Israeli perspective.

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