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The Holocaust and Psychoanalytic Theory and Praxis

Abstract This essay proposes that the formative years of psychoanalytic theory and praxis were affected by the fascism, war, and genocide in their midst. That this impact was largely absent from analytic discourse throughout most of the 20th century may be attributed to a number of factors. Analysts at the time had hopes for a positivist psychoanalysis—a “new science”—both universal and independent of context. Subjective experiences of the trials and expulsion of mostly Jewish professionals were thus viewed as a threat to the status of both the theory and its practitioners. Some analysts may have also been reluctant to dwell on their ordeal because they felt lucky to be alive and to start anew, unlike those left behind. Finally, the relative silence on the topic may represent a response to trauma, to experiences so overwhelmingly conflictual as to be only partially appreciated, or at times adaptively dissociated. Focusing as much on what has been omitted as on what is included in writings and interviews of analysts from the period, this discussion attempts to discern a presence in absence, noting the style and tenor of the work that theorists and clinicians left behind, all in an effort to find traces of a personal and collective catastrophe that altered theoretical and clinical ideas.