Wounds of History ─ Repair and Resilience in the Trans-Generational Transmission of Trauma

Wounds of History takes a new view in psychoanalysis using a trans-generational and social/political/cultural model looking at trauma and its transmission. The view is radical in looking beyond maternal dyads and Oedipal triangles and in its portrayal of a multi-generational world that is no longer hierarchical. This look allows for greater clinical creativity for conceptualizing and treating human suffering, situating healing in expanding circles of witnessing.

The contributors to this volume look at inherited personal trauma involving legacies of war, genocide, slavery, political persecution, forced migration/unwelcomed immigration and the way attachment and connection is disrupted, traumatized and ultimately longing for repair and reconnection.

The book addresses several themes such as the ethical/social turn in psychoanalysis; the repetition of resilience and wounds and the repair of these wounds; the complexity of attachment in the aftermath of trauma, and the move towards social justice. In their contributions, the authors remain close to the human stories.

Wounds of History will be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychologists and other mental health professionals, as well as students or teachers of trauma studies, Jewish and gender studies and studies of genocide.

Jill Salberg, Ph.D., ABPP is a clinical adjunct associate professor of psychology, faculty member and clinical consultant/supervisor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, faculty and supervisor at the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies and the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy. She has contributed to and is the editor of? the book Good Enough Endings: Breaks, Interruptions and Terminations from Contemporary Relational Perspectives. She conceived and co-edits a new book series, Psyche and Soul: Psychoanalysis, Spirituality and Religion in Dialogue (Routledge), and is in private practice in Manhattan.

Dr. Sue Grand is a clinical adjunct associate professor of psychology, faculty and clinical consultant/supervisor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and faculty at the trauma program at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, The Mitchell Center for Relational Psychoanalysis and the couples and family program at the NYU Postdoctoral program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. She is the author of The Reproduction of Evil: A Clinical and Cultural Perspective and The Hero in the Mirror: From Fear to Fortitude. She is a fellow at the Institute for the Psychology of the Other and is in private practice in NYC and Teaneck NJ.