Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Testimony Unwanted Memories of Social Trauma

'Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Testimony superbly enlightens us about the complexity of Holocaust trauma and subsequent memory distortions, the effects of the unspeakable "collapse of civilization in the midst of civilization." It elaborates on the various ways that external trauma destroys the internal Other. Laub and Hamburger highlight the transference and particularly the counter transference resistance with Holocaust survivors with intellectual rigor and emotional evocation. Poignant testimonials of survivors of survivors and videos of those in Israeli hospitals are presented. An original tapestry of language such as "traumatic signature," "shards of memory," "traumatic erasure," and "proximity to the abyss," impacts the reader's emotional response. It combines great sophistication and scholarship with immediate and direct involvement of the reader.' - Bruce H. Sklarew M.D.

'Dori Laub and Andreas Hamburger have brought together a powerful collection of papers that open new perspectives on the process of collecting testimony from Holocaust survivors. Their searching questions about the impact of both interviewers and interviewees on each other and on what is inevitably stirred in both takes their earlier work to new levels and reveals the complexity of what is involved in creating a record of "unbearable trauma" and "unwanted memory." Each contributing author adds to the richness of this collection.

This important new book also brings attention to Holocaust survivors who have been hospitalized for psychiatric illness for years and the chilling realization that the impact of their Holocaust history was often not even recognized or appreciated by those treating them.' -Darlene Bregman Ehrenberg, Ph.D., ABPP