Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Community History and Contemporary Reappraisals

Foreword Nina K. Thomas

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

1. Reestablishing the internal "Thou" in testimony of trauma Dori Laub
2. Dwelling at the Thresholds: Witnesses to Historical Trauma Across Concentric Fields Judy Roth

Part II. Therapeutic Encounters Outside the Frame

3. The multiple traumas of Hurricane Katrina as witnessed by a psychoanalytic first responder Laurel Bass Wagner
4. Some Dark Reality: A community develops skills to cope with shared trauma Ghislaine Boulanger
5. Psychoanalysis in and out of the office Neil Altman

Part III. Facilitating Collective Mourning

6. Intervention strategies for addressing collective trauma: Healing communities ravaged by racial strife Ricardo C. Ainslie
7. Beyond "Thank You for Your Service": The Creation of Post-War Veteran/Non-Veteran Collaborative Mourning Spaces Donna Bassin
8. Large-Group Identity and Massive Trauma Vamik D. Volkan

Part IV. Psychoanalytic Scholarship and Activism

9. The analyst as witness, historian and activist: A conversation with Robert Jay Lifton Elizabeth R. Goren & Judith L. Alpert
10. My Fulbright Journey Mary-Joan Gerson
11. Social trauma, politics and psychoanalysis: A personal narrative Nancy Caro Hollander
12. Institutional Betrayal and the Case of the American Psychological Association: The Role of Psychoanalysts and Psychoanalysis in Challenging It Elizabeth Hegeman
13. 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

Biography

Judith L. Alpert, Ph.D., is Professor and Clinical Consultant at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. She is also Professor of Applied Psychology and former Co-Director of the Trauma and Violence Transdisciplinary Studies Program at NYU, as well as maintaining private practice in New York.

Elizabeth Goren Ph.D., is Adjunct Clinical Professor at New York University and Clinical Consultant in NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis and Pace University. She is also in private practice in New York.

"The essays here expand the boundaries of psychoanalysis, applying its principles to social problems and intelligent activism while aptly demonstrating the profound applicability of our field to the socio-cultural milieu. A broad spectrum of mass trauma–including but not limited to the Holocaust, Hurricane Katrina, and September 11^th–is attended to by courageous analysts who understand that their vocation must move them beyond the office walls. In the alternative tradition of Harry Stack Sullivan and Robert J. Lifton, this powerful and highly recommended volume importantly reminds us that psychoanalytic principles and practice can and should reach far outside the usual clinical frame."-Danielle Knafo, Author, Living with Terror, Working with Trauma: A Clinician’s Handbook.

"Psychoanalysis, Trauma and Community is essential reading for all citizen-psychoanalysts, as we meet a critical juncture in history. Confronting the effects of global violence, hatred, poverty, and oppression, we are being called by social justice. How do we apply analytic premises outside the office? The authors in this volume re-frame analytic theory, offering us a compelling guide and source of inspiration and hope."-Sue Grand, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis; faculty, National Institute for the Psychotherapies; faculty, the Mitchell Center for Relational Psychoanalysis and visiting scholar, the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California.