Bearing witness with humility, empathy and courage: Israeli self psychologists share

ABSTRACT

The October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel, subsequent war and resultant humanitarian crisis remind all of the destructive potential we humans share. In this introduction to articles written by six Israeli psychoanalysts and candidates, we highlight the ways that their grounding in Psychoanalytic Self Psychology informed their work and supported the survivors’ efforts to restore their sense of connection to an empathic community.

KEYWORDS:

• Hamas
• Israel
• radical hope
• survivor
• witness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Judith Aronson

Judith Aronson, PhD, LCSW is a faculty member at the Institute for Clinical Social Work. She is the co-chair of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology Social Justice Interest Group and a member of the International Council of the International Council for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. She has a private psychotherapy and consultation practice in Evanston, Illinois.

Orly Shoshani

Orly Shoshani, PhD, Psychotherapist. A graduate of the Hermeneutics and Psychoanalysis program from Bar-Ilan University. Candidate in Human Spirit Psychoanalytic-Buddhist Training Program. Member of the teaching committee and faculty member in the Postgraduate Studies in ‘Self Psychology and the Therapeutic Act’ at the Tel Aviv University Medical School. Chair of the Education Committee of the International Association for Self Psychology (IAPSP). Maintains a private practice in Tel Aviv.

Margy Sperry

Margy Sperry PsyD, MFT is co-chair of the Social Justice group, a member of the International Council for the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. She maintains a private practice in West Los Angeles, California.