Transcending Trauma: Navigating the Dialectic of Suffering and Desire in Psychoanalysis
Gloria Blanco
(Presented at Sydney, 2 May 2024 at the Asia Pacific Conference.)
IPA Panel: Suffering and Desire Across the culture.
The panel discussion "Transcending Trauma: Navigating the Dialectic of Suffering and Desire in Psychoanalysis" within the framework of the "Suffering and Desire Across Different Cultures" conference offers valuable insights into how individuals, institutions, countries, and the International Psychoanalytical Society (IPA) and its members cope with the impact of traumatic events. This discussion also highlights the permeability of our psyche during collective traumas such as war, dictatorships, natural catastrophes, or pandemics within the analytical framework. Additionally, it is important to shed light on how cultural factors influence the experience of suffering and desire, emphasizing the significance of cultural sensitivity in psychoanalytic practice and understanding others.
The theme of suffering and desire within the context of "Transcending Trauma" can be explored from various perspectives, including the individual and collective experiences.
As psychoanalysts, we know that from the beginning of life, in the baby's encounter with the external world and the mother, a psychic apparatus develops with mechanisms that provide the baby with the ability to cope with overwhelming and universalized pain or suffering, with the purpose of surviving and tolerating reality. Similarly, let's imagine a country at war, under dictatorships or facing extremely violent situations, where groups also seek defences and mechanisms to cope with these collectively disruptive realities. This birth, we truly transcend traumas in order to stay alive.
For the purpose of this discussion, the focus will be on the collective experience. When analysing traumatic events on a collective level, it is crucial to consider the impact on communities, societies, and cultures as a whole. This approach provides a broader understanding of how trauma transcends individual experiences and permeates through social structures, and vice versa.
Delving into how trauma transcends individual experiences:
In his article "War Neuroses," Freud (1919) extensively examines the study of traumatic neuroses during wartime, with a specific focus on the impact of war experiences on soldiers and the subsequent development of neurotic symptoms. However, the article does not delve deeper into the broader impact of trauma on nations or the collective psyche of the people experiencing living in times of war. Furthermore, Freud does not address his own transference or countertransference dynamics when working with war-affected individuals and how emotionally involved he was.
It is important to consider that in times of war, dictatorships or other collective catastrophes, the impact of traumatic experiences is not limited to the individual soldier; rather, it extends to the collective population of a nation. The entire nation or collective also bears witness to and experiences the horrors of violence. This broader perspective prompts a consideration of the collective trauma experienced by a nation.
The issue of collective trauma’s impact on both analysts and patients is not a new phenomenon, although it has only recently gained attention among analysts. Examples of the collective impact of war are numerous, from Freud's exile from Vienna during the Nazi invasion, where Princess Marie Bonaparte played a crucial role in helping him escape to safety, to Klein conducting analyses amidst bombings in England, and the service of Winnicott and Bion during the war. The profession has a history of grappling with such challenges. However, the question remains: what has been the development and understanding of this shared collective impact on analysts and patient?
Drawing from my own psychoanalytic work during a time of dictatorship in Venezuela from 2013 to 2015, I will briefly explore a collective event that profoundly impacted an entire nation, to illustrate the broader implications of traumatic experiences on analytical work at both the individual and collective level.
I will quote Gampel (2020), as she introduces a psychoanalytical concept to explain violent events such as wars in a nation. Gampel metaphorically describes “the social impact of such collective situations as "radioactive," drawing parallels to the effects of radioactivity from physics. This metaphor illustrates how these external forces penetrate our psychic apparatus without our conscious control, resulting in bodily illness, emotional turbulence, and an intensified drive for identification that can be likened to a radioactive force”.
It is essential to acknowledge the profound impact of war or other significant external forces on both the analyst's and the patient's psyche. Understanding the horror and its effect on the mental state of individuals is crucial to understanding identification, transference, countertransference, and other psyche dynamics that occur in the consultation room, including the difficulty of mentalization during traumatic events and the transgenerational trauma as a radioactive event in the collective psyche.
Allen (2006) said: People who have experienced traumatic levels of violence are often unable to think about their experiences and are terrified by the possibility of thinking about them, or even worse, re-experiencing the emotions that they associate with the event, and therefore are unable to mentalize them.” It is for this reason that an analytical setting, whether individual or group therapy, provides a safe space for individuals to explore and reflect on these profound experiences that may otherwise be overwhelming on an individual and collective level.
In my beginnings as an analyst in training in 2013 in Venezuela, I observed the individual experience and collective impact of living under a dictatorship. Over the years under the dictatorship, Venezuela underwent significant political and social turmoil. The country faced challenges such as high inflation, shortages of food and medicine, widespread corruption, political instability, protests, violence, and restrictions on freedom of speech and the press. These factors contributed to a shift towards a dictatorship, with a government that exerted control over the economy and mismanaged resources, ultimately leading to the current state of economic crisis.
During that time, a patient (F) who I saw four times a week for 2 years became politically persecuted by the Venezuelan government. Balancing the need to listen to my patients' unconscious while being acutely aware of the societal impact on both of us required delicate navigation of individual subjectivities. At times, the traumatic impact was so immediate that the capacity for mentalization for the patient and even mine was almost impossible. An example of this occurred when, during F's moment of fleeing the country to escape from the government, F's capacity to think was blocked.
F wondered, "What do I do? How do I survive? What will happen to me?" As an analyst, I thought: Is F in a safe place? Will the government come for me as F’s analyst? These were some of the thoughts at the moment of the external reality impact on our psyche when F had to flee the country suddenly to save his life.
Fs case underscored the intricate interplay between external social forces and internal psychic realities. It has prompted me to continually reflect on the ethical implications of practising in such contexts and has deepened my commitment to honing my skills in navigating the complexities of transference, countertransference, and trauma within a socio-politically charged environment.
Other patients brought themes such as the scarcity of basic food items or being unable to attend appointments due to protests. There were even moments when tear gas would penetrate the windows of the consulting room while I was in session with a patient.
My patients told me that they were terrified when tear gas entered the consultation room, when they heard gunshots from protests, outside or how they were afraid to leave their homes because due to their age, they risked being arrested simply for being young if they passed through areas where protests were taking place. I must confess that I often felt fear, not only for my patients but also for myself, as I listened to their stories. It was as if the tears produced at times by tear gas were not just tears caused by this alone, but a symbolic representation of the emotional impact, a collective reaction to the shared pain between my patients and myself.
At such times of major social unrest, the absence of a patient in a session may not indicate resistance or acting out; it could reflect real fear and their need to protect themselves protection rather than exposing themselves to danger by attending session. Hence, the analyst's understanding is directed towards unconscious determinants and whether protection or destructive drives are being activated.
It was crucial to consider how to work in the psychoanalytical field under challenging circumstances, such as living under a dictatorship. However, the key aspect was to continue seeking ways to transcend those traumatic situations by engaging in deep reflection, introspection, and processing the trauma.
This was where our own analysis, supervision with more experienced analysts, collaboration with peers, and sometimes seeking guidance from analysts outside of our shared reality became essential elements in transcending such violent situations. This was the approach that I, along with many members and candidates of Caracas Psychoanalytical Society, took to continue working and providing our analytical listening
Psychoanalytic Experiences in Turbulent Times: Reflections on Collective Trauma
Returning to Venezuela, I will now discuss the collective experience on the Caracas Psychoanalytic Society. All of the members and candidates of the Society lived during this tumultuous time. Patients attending consultations brought the same social problems that analysts and candidates faced. The impact of the violence in the streets, the assassinations of young people in protests by the national guard of the country, knowing about the wounded, the imprisoned, the tortured, the blackout days, the kidnappings, and the almost daily rise in inflation intruded into our consultation rooms and psyches.
How do we think about it, metabolize, and maintain neutrality in listening, hold on to the subject's subjectivity as they seek consultation and to the psychic reality of the individual in the face of such massive and traumatic situations that affected the collective?
Members and candidates discussed these questions and thought together from a psychoanalytic perspective. This allowed them to mentalize and metabolize in order to continue working and living.
When I talk about mentalization, I refer to Fonagy's concept (1991), he defined mentalization as the capacity not only to think but to be aware that one is thinking and that others may also be thinking. During times of tremendous violence, this capacity can be affected and requires a space for restoration. Similarly, according to Ogden (2004), metabolization involves the internalization and integration of emotional experiences, allowing individuals to make sense of and adaptively manage these experiences. Metabolization is a crucial process in the development of psychic structures. Although both authors discussed these concepts at the individual level, they can be extended to the collective and fulfilled in groups. In this way the Caracas Psychoanalytic Society fulfilled and helped with this function for its members and candidates in times of tremendous turmoil.
The Caracas psychoanalytic society, following the principles outlined by Bion, functioned as a container for its members and candidates, understanding them collectively as a group. By adopting the concept of the "container" and the "contained," the society provided a space for emotional projection and containment, allowing for the processing and understanding of emotional experiences within the group dynamic. This approach facilitated the conjoining and permeation of emotions within the group, leading to a sense of shared growth.
On an international level, the IPA demonstrated support and understanding of the tragic situation experienced by the Caracas Psychoanalytic Society. Their acknowledgment and recognition of the challenges faced by Venezuela were invaluable. Additionally, the relocation committee for members and candidates assisted those who had decided to immigrate in integrating into the host country.
Transcending Trauma: Caracas Psychoanalytic Society:
From 2015 onwards, there was a massive emigration of Venezuelans, including members of the psychoanalytic society. This led to grieving for those who remained and who lost colleagues, analysts, or supervisors. For those of us who were leaving, we grieved as we left behind our homes and the country of encounter and knowledge. Every week someone left (children, gran-children, patients). The trauma was collective and broke into every corner of the collective psyche. What we knew was no longer so familiar, the country felt strange, alien and uncanny.
At a macro level, the Caracas Psychoanalytic Society created a shared space where all members could express their experiences, share knowledge, and receive support from the community as a whole. This macro-level containment allowed members and candidates to elaborate and metabolise the impact of the violence, grief, and tragedy around them.
This psychoanalytic knowledge, which served members and candidates, also expanded by creating programs for the general community. These programs provided a platform for groups to discuss and process collective traumatic events, allowing them to express their thoughts and emotions in a supportive environment. This approach aimed to help individuals mentalize and cope with the impact of such events on a larger scale.
It is inevitable to reflect on how we, as individuals and within the Caracas psychoanalytic Society and Venezuelan, transcended the traumatic situation of a dictatorship. The society dedicated itself to organizing events to open spaces for thinking about and addressing the social pain, and the collective suffering, that infiltrated our consulting rooms. Words such as "This will always be home" were spoken within the psychoanalytic society, which provided opportunities for gatherings and meetings with candidates and analysts, inclusive of those who were emigrating. The collective emigration of many members and training analysts put a strain on the society.
Perspectives on Turmoil: The Psychoanalytic Lens in Times of Uncertainty and Societal Reflection
In times of turmoil, it is essential for psychoanalytic societies to engage in introspection and thoughtful consideration of their own situation. Today, we may find ourselves in a relatively stable environment, but the future is uncertain, and the outbreak of conflict in various parts of the world is a constant reminder of this reality. It is imperative that we contemplate how to approach and prepare for such eventualities, as well as how to offer assistance to others who may find themselves in need. The application of a psychoanalytic perspective can provide valuable insights for navigating these complex and challenging circumstances, not only for us but also for our patients and the broader society. By delving into the depths of the human psyche, we can gain a deeper understanding of our own reactions, and of others, and develop more effective strategies for coping with the uncertainties and adversities that lie ahead.
The containment function within societies should extend beyond just those involved in violent conflicts. It is crucial for each of us to consider the readiness of our own psychoanalytic societies to receive and support those analysts and candidates’ members of IPA Societies, who are escaping from violent situations and seeking to overcome the lasting effects of trauma. This includes empathy and preparedness. How would we feel if our own society and country faced such challenges? Psychoanalytic institutions and societies worldwide should strive for greater understanding and support people who have encountered these complex situations, recognizing that no one is immune to experiencing such hardships. There is a need for the international psychoanalytic community to emulate the support provided by Mary Bonaparte to Freud, offering help, listening, and understanding members seeking integration from societies facing wars, dictatorships, or natural disasters. It is essential for each institution to think and assess its readiness to welcome and support other members or candidates of the IPA who are in need.
References
Allen, J., & Fonagy, P. (Eds.). (2006). Mentalizing in Practice. In Handbook of Mentalization-Based Treatment. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons.
Bion W. R. (1962) Chapter Twenty-Seven. Learning from Experience 3:89-94
Bragin, M. (2012) So That Our Dreams Will Not Escape Us: Learning to Think Toguether in time of war. Psychoanalytiv Inquiry 32:115-135
Freud, S. (1919). War Neuroses. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (1917-1919): An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works, 217-256.
Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVIII (1920-1922)
Gampe, Y. (2020) the pain of the social. International Journal of Psychoanalysis.l
Ogden, T.H. (2004). The analytic third: implications for psychoanalytic theory and technique. Retrieved from https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Ogden_Analytic_Third.pdf