This book explores the intersection of clinical and social aspects of traumatic experiences in postdictatorial and post-war societies, forced migration, and other circumstances of collective violence. Contributors outline conceptual approaches, treatment methods, and research strategies for understanding social traumatizations in a wider conceptual frame that includes both clinical psychology and psychiatry. Accrued from a seven year interdisciplinary and international dialogue, the book presents multiple scholarly and practical views from clinical psychology and psychiatry to social and cultural theory, developmental psychology, memory studies, law, research methodology, ethics, and education. Among the topics discussed: Theory of social trauma Psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic approaches to social trauma Memory studies Developmental psychology of social trauma Legal and ethical aspects Specific methodology and practice in social trauma research Social Trauma: An International Textbook fills a critical gap between clinical and social theories of trauma, offering a basis for university teaching as well as an overview for all who are involved in the modern issues of victims of social violence. It will be a useful reference for students, teachers, and researchers in psychology, medicine, education, and political science, as well as for therapists and mental health practitioners dealing with survivors of collective violence, persecution, torture and forced migration.

A psychoanalytic process from its beginning to its termination is described to illustrate crucial technical issues in the treatment of individuals with narcissistic personality organization and the countertransference manifestations such patients stimulate in the analyst. The subject of this book exhibited cruelty to confirm and stabilize his grandiosity. His internal world was a "reservoir" of the deposited image of his father figure, an individual most severely traumatized during World War II. The patient was given the task to be a mass-"killer" of animals instead of being a hunted one.This book most clearly illustrates how the transgenerational transmission of trauma takes place and how the impact of war continues in future generations. The book also provides an understanding of a special kind of psychological motivation that directs a person to use weapons for mass killing. In this era of pluralism in psychoanalysis, providing the story of a psychoanalytic case in its duration opens ways for comparison and discussion of technique and can be used as a teaching tool.

The author has three goals in writing this book. The first is to explore large-group identity such as ethnic identity, diplomacy, political propaganda, terrorism and the role of leaders in international affairs. The second goal is to describe societal and political responses to trauma at the hands of the Other, large-group mourning, and the appearance of the history of ancestors and its consequences. The third goal is to expand theories of large-group psychology in its own right and define concepts illustrating what happens when tens of thousands or millions of people share similar psychological journeys. The author is a psychoanalyst who has been involved in unofficial diplomacy for thirty-five years. His interdisciplinary team has brought "enemy" representatives, such as Israelis and Arabs, Russians and Estonians, Georgians and South Ossetians, together for dialogue. He has spent time in refugee camps and met many world leaders.

More and more individuals with ego defects, severe object relations conflicts, affective turbulence, and unassimilated contradictions are seeking help from psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. Contributors to this book explore hereditary and constitutional factors, environmental influences and unconscious fantasies in the development of the psychotic core in such patients and provide guidance for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists to hear and therapeutically respond to these patients' uncanny ways of describing their internal worlds. This volume includes contributions by experienced clinicians from Europe and the United States, as well as case histories illustrating the transformation of the psychotic core and how these patients can develop healthier internal structures. The editors' introductory and closing summaries integrate knowledge dealing with especially difficult patients. By reading this book, psychoanalysts and therapists will be prepared to gain insights as newer neurobiological and psychological research findings become available and, hopefully, enthusiasm about working with individuals with "the seed of madness."

How we cope with grief and come to terms with the death of a loved one shapes our world. In this comprehensive guide to the mourning process, Dr Volkan, a world-recognised authority on grief, shows how each mourning is as individualised as our fingerprints, encoded with our past history of losses. Anecdotal and compassionate, this is a profoundly moving and informative study of how grief and loss shape all our lives.

The editors and contributors examine research regarding the ways the relationships of people and animals are reflected in human psychopathology. They describe how animals figure in psychiatric symptoms, and how people project their concerns onto animals or describe an aspect of their thinking in terms of animals and their behaviors. They continue by examining case studies of patients and pathologies with connections to animals, such as the horses of Little Hans and the image of the Wolfman, and presenting research in how dogs, birds, snakes, spiders, and cats figure in both diagnosis and therapy. Episodes of cruelty to animals are described.

In this book, North American psychiatrists explore the psychic bond between humans and animals and its importance in the normal development of the human mind, animals in human dreams, transformations of humans to animals in literature, animals generally in adult and children's literature and art, animals in religion, and how animals relate to immigration and national identity.

This book addresses the major problems of leadership in groups, organizations, and societies in the twenty-first century, when rapid change, complex dilemmas, and earth-shattering consequences affect the daily lives of people in the diverse contexts of social institutions, the corporate world, domestic politics, and international terrorism and conflict. The volume convenes a group of distinguished scholars, consultants, and leaders who address significant contemporary dilemmas that test the skills and knowledge of all concerned individuals. Benjamin Disraeli said, "I am their leader; therefore I must follow them." This book speaks directly to that intimate connection between leaders and followers. The organizing principle of the book is a 'group systems' understanding of leadership further elaborated through the relational and intersubjective concepts emerging in the fields of counseling, dynamic psychiatry, and psychotherapy. This interdisciplinary approach both complements and contrasts with the traditional understanding of leadership based on the dynamics of individual and collective self-interest.

A psychoanalytic process from its beginning to its termination is described to illustrate crucial technical issues in the treatment of individuals with narcissistic personality organization and the countertransference manifestations such patients stimulate in the analyst. The subject of this book exhibited cruelty to confirm and stabilize his grandiosity. His internal world was a "reservoir" of the deposited image of his father figure, an individual most severely traumatized during World War II. The patient was given the task to be a mass-"killer" of animals instead of being a hunted one.This book most clearly illustrates how the transgenerational transmission of trauma takes place and how the impact of war continues in future generations. The book also provides an understanding of a special kind of psychological motivation that directs a person to use weapons for mass killing. In this era of pluralism in psychoanalysis, providing the story of a psychoanalytic case in its duration opens ways for comparison and discussion of technique and can be used as a teaching tool.

This is not your typical psychotherapy case; it is the story of one man's inner struggle to find peace and happiness in an internal world filled with dangerous father figures and tempting but rejecting femme fatales. Training analyst, author, and four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Vamik Volkan weaves a compelling story of Hamilton's complete psychoanalysis. From one angle, it is an evocative, accessible page-turner, drawing readers from the professional world and the lay public into the inner life of a compulsive womanizer, and the psychoanalytic treatment that brought about massive change in his inner life and personal relationships. From another angle, it is about the profound influence of historical traumas transmitted across generations and how not only an individual's parents' personal trauma, but also ancestors' historical traumas, reverberate in the current generation. Our ancestors' suffering during wars, for example, does not disappear when our ancestors die or when wars end, but continues to influence their offspring. For the deeply inquisitive person and serious students of psychoanalysis, this is an opportunity to learn about psychoanalytic theory and technique applied to a single case. The book confronts the question "Does psychoanalysis help?" Through this detailed account of the psychoanalytic treatment processes, the reader witnesses the slow but compelling changes in Hamilton's internal world. Interspersed throughout the manuscript, J. Christopher Fowler, an experienced therapist, clinical researcher, and educator, challenges Volkan to explain how his psychoanalytic techniques affect changes in Hamilton's mind.

This book addresses the major problems of leadership in groups, organizations, and societies in the twenty-first century, when rapid change, complex dilemmas, and earth-shattering consequences affect the daily lives of people in the diverse contexts of social institutions, the corporate world, domestic politics, and international terrorism and conflict. The volume convenes a group of distinguished scholars, consultants, and leaders who address significant contemporary dilemmas that test the skills and knowledge of all concerned individuals. Benjamin Disraeli said, "I am their leader; therefore I must follow them." This book speaks directly to that intimate connection between leaders and followers. The organizing principle of the book is a "group systems" understanding of leadership further elaborated through the relational and intersubjective concepts emerging in the fields of counseling, dynamic psychiatry, and psychotherapy. This interdisciplinary approach both complements and contrasts with the traditional understanding of leadership based on the dynamics of individual and collective self-interest.

This book traces the historical and cross-cultural aspects of the psychic bond between man and animals, and elucidates the role of animals in the normal development of the human mind. It discusses the phenomenology and dynamics of the appearance of animals in human dreams.

The Third Reich in the Unconscious concerns itself with the third element of the psychological impact of massive human trauma: transgenerational transmission of psychological tasks. In order to study this topic and identify its pertinence to Third Reich-related case studies, the authors both revisit the effects of the Holocaust on second-generation survivors and outline the mechanics of transgenerational transmission in general.
Decribing in detail how transgenerational transmission occurs, this book focuses on the psychological processes of the younger generations, outside of their identification with directly traumatize ancestors, and explains how historical image contaminate the expression of developmental conflicts at all levels.
Also included are complete treatment processes for Jewish and German second-generation individuals, and, for the very first time, a full analysis of a traveller (gypsy). Accessible to the general reader, The Third Reich in the Unconscious will be of interest to anyone concerned with the Holocaust or past traumatic historical events.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

Regional and Ethnic Conflicts: Perspectives from the Front Lines provides an alternative vantage point that contributes new perspectives to the study of ethnopolitical conflict. The interest and insights students gain from this book into how complex ethnopolitical conflicts can be mitigated, resolved and prevented give hope to the future. From a pedagogical perspective, this text is designed to expose students to alternative perspectives. It adds realism and insight to students' understanding of distal ethnopolitical conflicts. Contributors were purposely asked to discuss a range of factors to bring to light the complexity of ethnopolitical conflict. Their chapters are meant to prod students to internalize the importance of analyzing and understanding ethnopolitical conflicts from multiple perspectives.

The Third Reich in the Unconscious: Transgenerational Transmission and Its Consequences examines the effects of the Holocaust on second-generation survivors and specifically describes how historical images and trauma are transferred. The authors reveal the many ways in which the psychological legacy of the Nazi regime manifests itself in subsequent generations and how psychopathology, if present, can assume a number of different forms. Among the detailed case histories and treatment considerations, the text provides insight for developing strategies that will tame and eventually prevent transgenerational transmission.

"Regional and Ethnic Conflicts: Perspectives from the Front Lines" provides an alternative vantage point that contributes new perspectives to the study of ethnopolitical conflict. The interest and insights students gain from this book into how complex ethnopolitical conflicts can be mitigated, resolved and prevented give hope to the future. From a pedagogical perspective, this text is designed to expose students to alternative perspectives. It adds realism and insight to students' understanding of distal ethnopolitical conflicts. Contributors were purposely asked to discuss a range of factors to bring to light the complexity of ethnopolitical conflict. Their chapters are meant to prod students to internalize the importance of analyzing and understanding ethnopolitical conflicts from multiple perspectives.

This book explores the intersection of clinical and social aspects of traumatic experiences in postdictatorial and post-war societies, forced migration, and other circumstances of collective violence. Contributors outline conceptual approaches, treatment methods, and research strategies for understanding social traumatizations in a wider conceptual frame that includes both clinical psychology and psychiatry. Accrued from a seven year interdisciplinary and international dialogue, the book presents multiple scholarly and practical views from clinical psychology and psychiatry to social and cultural theory, developmental psychology, memory studies, law, research methodology, ethics, and education. Among the topics discussed: Theory of social trauma Psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic approaches to social trauma Memory studies Developmental psychology of social trauma Legal and ethical aspects Specific methodology and practice in social trauma research Social Trauma: An International Textbook fills a critical gap between clinical and social theories of trauma, offering a basis for university teaching as well as an overview for all who are involved in the modern issues of victims of social violence. It will be a useful reference for students, teachers, and researchers in psychology, medicine, education, and political science, as well as for therapists and mental health practitioners dealing with survivors of collective violence, persecution, torture and forced migration.

This book relates the psychoanalytic journey of a man in his thirties, a grandson of a high-level SS officer, whose case illustrates how individuals can sometimes suffer greatly or cause the suffering of other innocent persons, simply because they are descendants of perpetrators. In it, technical considerations in treating such an individual, including countertransference issues and concepts related to transgenerational transmissions-for example, identification, depositing, dissociation, encapsulation, and remembering through actions-are explored. The man had a repeating daydream of carrying a big egg under his arm. The imagined egg, representing his encapsulated dissociated state, contained the mental representation of his Nazi grandfather and his grandfather's victims, along with images of most tragic historical events. He attempted to turn his grandfather's image from a life-taker to a life-giver and wished to own the older man's grandiose specialness, while fearing the loss of his own life. These opposite aims created unnamed "catastrophes".

Aside from the many political, cultural and economic aspects of the present refugee crisis in Europe, it is also crucial to consider the psychological element. In our fast-changing world, globalisation, advances in communication technology, fast travel, terrorism and now the refugee crisis make psychoanalytic investigation of the Other a major necessity. Psychoanalyst Vamik Volkan, who left Cyprus for the US as a young man, brings his own experiences as an immigrant to bear on this study of the psychology of immigrants and refugees, and of those who cross paths with them. In Part 1, case examples illustrate the impact of traumatic experiences, group identity issues, and how traumas embedded in the experience of immigrants and refugees can be passed down from one generation to the next. Part 2 focuses on the host countries, considering the evolution of prejudice and how fear of newcomers can affect everything from international politics to the way we behave as individuals.

The author has three goals in writing this book. The first is to explore large-group identity such as ethnic identity, diplomacy, political propaganda, terrorism and the role of leaders in international affairs. The second goal is to describe societal and political responses to trauma at the hands of the Other, large-group mourning, and the appearance of the history of ancestors and its consequences.The third goal is to expand theories of large-group psychology in its own right and define concepts illustrating what happens when tens of thousands or millions of people share similar psychological journeys. Vamik D. Volkan is a psychoanalyst who has been involved in unofficial diplomacy for thirty-five years. His interdisciplinary team has brought enemy representatives, such as Israelis and Arabs, Russians and Estonians, Georgians and South Ossetians, together for dialogue. He has spent time in refugee camps and met many world leaders.In 2008 he initiated the International Dialogue Initiative (IDI), and is one of the IDI leaders who brings together unofficial representatives, including psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic group therapists and former diplomats, from Lebanon, Germany, Iran, Israel, Russia, Turkey, UK, and USA to discuss world affairs from different points of view and evaluate psychological issues that contaminate them. As far-reaching developments in communication technology and modern globalization are occurring and changing human civilization, the authors work finds a crucial place for psychodynamic thinking in world affairs.

The author believes that studying a therapeutic process closely from its beginning to its termination is one of the best ways to observe, learn, and teach psychoanalytic concepts. This book is unusual since it describes a man's drastic internal psychological changes over forty years. He was thirty-nine years old when he wanted to cut off his wife's head with an axe and he was hospitalized; previous to this incident he had delusions and hallucinations. He died at age eighty-two as a beloved community leader. The author provides clinical illustrations of primitive transference and counter transference manifestations. He defines "satellite states" in which an individual finds a balance between experiencing individuation and remaining dependent on the Other and "crucial juncture" experiences that are necessary to learn how to integrate self and object images and move up the developmental steps. Various concepts such as the replacement child, actualized unconscious phantasy, emotional flooding, and linking interpretation and therapeutic play are explored.

In the wake of recent conflicts in Russia and the former Yugoslavia, ethnic terrorism and ethnic cleansing have become household words. Yet we are at a loss to find solutions to such struggles. In "Bloodlines," Vamik Volkan, a world-renowned psychiatrist specializing in international relations, explores ethnic violence by examining history and diplomacy through a psycho-analytic lens.Dr. Volkan leads the reader on investigative tours of battlegrounds in the Middle East, Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, the Baltics, and the Balkans. In Serbia, he discovers that the Battle of Kosovo, fought in 1389, is the rallying cry for modern nationalists, who view the past as prophecy. In Turkey, PKK terrorist leader Apo reveals that he still considers himself an unloved child and orders his army of Kurdish women to remain virgins because of his own disgust with "unclean" adult behavior. In Latvia, after the dissolution of the USSR, Dr. Volkan learns that ethnic Latvians plan to disinter corpses and segregate cemeteries in an attempt to establish a national identity separate from that of Russia. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, Dr. Volkan analyzes these issues of identity formation, perceived versus real threats, the persistence of past traumas, and the desire for revenge.The result is a work that lays the foundation for understanding the differences between ethnic groups as well as the common ground they share. Timely, brilliant, and gripping, "Bloodlines" gives fascinating insights into how personal identity intertwines with nationality, and why hatred of others becomes a part of our sense of self.