Rezension zu Fed with Tears - Poisoned with Milk
Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review
Rezension von Tomas Böhm
This volume describes the preparation and the work of three
consecutive Group Relations conferences during 1994 to 2000
concerning German-Israeli relatedness in the post-Holocaust era.
This is pioneer work. Difficult, painful and brave from both
organizers/authors and participants, who were psychoanalysts from
Germany and Israel. After the three conferences that are described
in this book the work has continued in including other groupings
affected by the Holocaust, like Diaspora Jews and Palestinians.
This has resulted in a new organization, Partners in Confronting
Collective Atrocities (PCCA) with the aim to learn from the
Holocaust about dealing with other atrocities.
The authors underline the importance of the actual presence of the
other in producing desirable change in one/'s identity, which is
why they chose the format of a Group Relations Conference, which
was modified for this special aim. In the first post-war decades
there was an inability to mourn as a group in the German
Psychoanalytic Society (DPV), even if the individuals mourned.
»Individual awareness anticipated the collective one by decade«. In
the second stage German analysts acknowledged their personal
responsibility from 1983 with the help of Hillel Klein and Rafael
Moses. This occurred in moving group experiences in among other
places Wiesbaden in 1984. It also meant the painful realization, in
R. Vogt/'s words that »Hitlers heirs are embarking upon the
heritage of Freud. The one heritage mixes with the other like fire
and water.«
In these described conferences the German analysts could realize
their heritage of the Holocaust only in the presence of Jewish
colleagues. The conference experience is described beautifully in a
collage written by 28 participants and staff, grouped under
different thematic headlines. Identity issues dominate over
emotional contents. This also concerns the image of the other, the
»not-me«. Another painful and striking finding is of the Germans
growing up in families as victims of parents who were unaware of
them emotionally. »I was raised by an ordinary Nazi mother«, is a
quotation that upsets any reader of this text. These German
participants could be superficially pleasant but difficult to
relate to fully. Also here was the issue of shame that the German
members struggled with. Altogether the authors emphasize how this
points to a possible deficit in the early object relations of many
German children.
For the Jews, murderous rage and vengefulness was more evident, but
also their envy and even an unacceptable need to identify with the
Germans.
It is interesting that the authors underline how the common aims of
understanding, reconciliation and forgiveness are foreign to these
conferences. The primary task is instead defined as exploration
This, however seems to include working with group identity. The
change of identity in the presence of the other has the burden of
betrayal against the group affiliation as a particular resistance.
People are willing to participate which is a valuable indicator of
the work, even if we dont know what these people are looking for
consciously. The authors indicate that the place and meaning of the
Holocaust is a huge gaping wound that refuses to scar over and
heal. Therefore we must keep on dealing with it, and this might be
the unconscious reason for participating.
The conferences are not aiming for dialogue either, but for each
group to work in the presence of the other group. This seems to be
in line with the Group Relations approach. The authors underline
that dialogue implies the prior recognition of the others
otherness, and that it can only emerge as a by-product in a not yet
dialogic process. I differ on this point, because I see dialogue as
a way to facilitate a process where the other is experienced as an
individual with his own humanness. If you speak to your enemies
they become less demonized.
But this may be just a minor theoretical controversy in my mind as
a reader of this text.
It is hard to describe this kind of experiential process in a
public presentation, as the authors write themselves. They have
however succeeded in overcoming this challenge. It is also
noteworthy when they tell that this work has been given quite an
importance in Germany, but hardly the same place in Israel. Maybe
this illustrates the dialectics between German guilt feelings and
Israeli rage through the generations.
The new organization, PCCA has already organized another widened
conference: »Repeating, Reflecting, Moving on: Germans, Jews,
Israelis, Palestinians and Others Today« in September 08. This
seems to be an important development, even if the organizers might
have a somewhat optimistic view about how much conferences of this
kind, for people motivated to work with psychological issues, can
contribute in political conflicts. They also emphasize that the
»radioactive fallout« from the Holocaust still reaches far removed
from its original devastation and therefore it is the energetic
center of this work.
This book is an unusual presentation of a brave and unique project,
where psychoanalysis is applied in an explorative way in the world
outside of consulting rooms. I recommend it for any reader who
doesn/'t believe in the transgenerational transmission of trauma -
and to everyone else interested in identity issues.