Main description:

Trauma is one of the hottest contemporary topics within psychoanalysis, whilst many psychoanalysts are increasingly interested in applying their skills outside the traditional setting of the consulting room, especially in response to disasters, wars and serious social issues. Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Community seeks to correct the misconceptions of what analysts do and how they do it and debunk the stereotype of psychoanalysts stuck in their offices plying their wares on the worried well.

Bringing together a group of eminent contributors, this volume considers how psychoanalysis may best be expanded to help in social and community settings, to understand these wider issues from a psychoanalytic perspective, and provide clear clinical guidance and clinical examples of how best to work in a wide variety of non-traditional ways. The innovative work featured includes taking testimony, in-situ interviewing, documentary film-making, social activism, ethnic and political conflict mediation, on-site workshops as well as direct clinical interventions. The reader is taken from the Holocaust, Hiroshima and the Vietnam War to the Balkan Wars and Palestinian-Israeli conflict, from the political violence of the disappeared in Argentina to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, and from chronic conditions of poverty in India to racism in the post-Jim Crow South.

Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Community will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists and anyone studying on the increasing number of trauma courses being given today in universities. Lay readers with an interest in the traumatic fallout as a result of chronic conditions or the myriad disasters that occur globally will find this book illuminating. For the non-specialist mental health professional, including non-analytic psychotherapists, social workers and others who work in the community, this book offers concrete advice on dealing with intervention issues such as entry and integration, as well as on management of multiple and complex trauma in a non-clinical setting.

Contents:

Foreword Nina K. Thomas

Introduction: Expanding our Analytic Identity: The Inclusion of a Larger Social Perspective Judith L. Alpert, Elizabeth R. Goren, & Andrea Rihm

Part I. Receiving Testimony

Reestablishing the internal "Thou" in testimony of trauma Dori Laub

Dwelling at the Thresholds: Witnesses to Historical Trauma Across Concentric Fields Judy Roth
Part II. Therapeutic Encounters Outside the Frame

The multiple traumas of Hurricane Katrina as witnessed by a psychoanalytic first responder Laurel Bass Wagner

Some Dark Reality: A community develops skills to cope with shared trauma Ghislaine Boulanger

Psychoanalysis in and out of the office Neil Altman
Part III. Facilitating Collective Mourning

Intervention strategies for addressing collective trauma: Healing communities ravaged by racial strife Ricardo C. Ainslie

Beyond "Thank You for Your Service": The Creation of Post-War Veteran/Non-Veteran Collaborative Mourning Spaces Donna Bassin

Large-Group Identity and Massive Trauma Vamik D. Volkan
Part IV. Psychoanalytic Scholarship and Activism

The analyst as witness, historian and activist: A conversation with Robert Jay Lifton Elizabeth R. Goren & Judith L. Alpert

My Fulbright Journey Mary-Joan Gerson

Social trauma, politics and psychoanalysis: A personal narrative Nancy Caro Hollander

Institutional Betrayal and the Case of the American Psychological Association: The Role of Psychoanalysts and Psychoanalysis in Challenging It Elizabeth Hegeman

Robert Jay Lifton: A Witness and Prophet Who Feels Deeply and Assaults our Minds Lewis Aron

Conclusion: Psychoanalysis, Trauma & Community: Lessons Learned Alison Lake, Elizabeth R. Goren, & Judith L. Alpert