Meaning Making in Survivorship: Application to Holocaust Survivors

Abstract

Meaning making is fast emerging as a core construct in addressing trauma and violent loss. Meaning-making theorists, however, have suggested that people who have suffered severe, direct traumas may be the most likely to search for meaning but the least likely to find it. This unfortunate conclusion is based on empirical studies that have narrowly construed meaning making as “making sense” or “finding benefit” and that have limited their investigations to examining cognitive systems of appraisal. Armour found that family survivors of homicide victims employed other meaning-making processes and documented how activity or the intentional engagement in behaviors designed to focus explicitly on the things that matter most after trauma is often a part of the meaning making of those for whom cognitive processes alone prove less than healing. This mixed-methods study applies Armour's own theory of meaning making grounded in action to a historic and mass trauma by examining how 133 Holocaust survivors pursued what mattered at three different time points: during the Holocaust, after they immigrated to the United States, and as older adults. Content analysis of audiotaped interviews found that survival expressed through actions and attitudes was the core theme at all three time points. During the Nazi regime, survivors kept themselves alive physically by refusing to consider the option of death, being lucky, outwitting the Nazis, stealing, and following a strict philosophy of independence or collectivism. They kept hope alive through believing in liberation, attaching to personal fantasies of what the future might hold, and remaining loyal to loved ones and having faith in their reunion. After immigration, survivors focused on survival by striving for education and family; having children; being successful; shutting the door to the past; and cultivating proactive attitudes such as gratitude, acceptance, and the dissolving of hatred. As older adults, survivors' concerns with survival are expressed through maintaining their health, fulfilling their obligations to those who died, and taking principled stands to fight hatred and oppression.

KEYWORDS:

• Meaning-making
• grounded in action

Notes

This research was funded by Grant 10282 from the John Templeton Foundation: Roberta R. Greene (principal investigator); Marilyn Armour, Harriet L. Cohen, Constance Corley, and Carmen Morano (co-investigators); Shira Hantman (statistical consultant); and Sandra A. Graham (project manager). The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.