Thoughts on representation in therapy of Holocaust survivors1

Abstract

This paper presents the problems of representation and lack of representation in treating Holocaust survivors, through clinical vignettes and various theoreticians. The years of Nazi persecution and murder brought about a destruction of symbolization and turning inner and external reality into the Thing itself, the concrete, or, in Lacan’s words, ‘The Thing’. The paper presents two ideas related to praxis as well as theory in treating Holocaust survivors: the first is related to the therapist’s treatment of the Holocaust nightmare expressing the traumatic events just as they happened 63-years previously; the second deals with the attempt at subjectification, in contrast to the objectification forced by the Nazis on their victims.

Key words:

• Das Ding
• Holocaust
• interpretation
• metapsychology
• negation
• nightmares
• representation
• symbolization
• therapy
• trauma

1. This paper was first presented as a lecture on Holocaust Day (1 May 2008) at Amcha Tel‐Aviv and Dan Area – the Israeli Center for Social and Emotional Support of Holocaust Survivors and the Second Generation.

2. Senior Clinical Psychologist (2005–2009), Amcha (RA) – National Israeli Center for psychosocial support of Holocaust survivors and the second generation.

1. This paper was first presented as a lecture on Holocaust Day (1 May 2008) at Amcha Tel‐Aviv and Dan Area – the Israeli Center for Social and Emotional Support of Holocaust Survivors and the Second Generation.

2. Senior Clinical Psychologist (2005–2009), Amcha (RA) – National Israeli Center for psychosocial support of Holocaust survivors and the second generation.

Notes

1. This paper was first presented as a lecture on Holocaust Day (1 May 2008) at Amcha Tel‐Aviv and Dan Area – the Israeli Center for Social and Emotional Support of Holocaust Survivors and the Second Generation.

2. Senior Clinical Psychologist (2005–2009), Amcha (RA) – National Israeli Center for psychosocial support of Holocaust survivors and the second generation.

3. The ‘thing’ in the sense of ‘logos’, ‘saying’, ‘word’, and the metaphysical aura surrounding this term (the divine thing through which the world was created) refer to the opening line of the Gospel according to John: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’.