GENERATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST

From The Group for the Psychoanalytic Study of the Effect of the Holocaust on the Second Generation: a compilation of reports and papers and case-histories dealing with the postwar problems of Holocaust survivors--focusing most on psychoanalytic treatment for children of survivors, and (more theoretically) on exploring the interaction between ""individual pathology and social catastrophe."" The drawbacks to such a study are fully discussed here: the difficulty in finding cases, the complicating factor of postwar-reparation policies (recompense for physical ills, not emotional trauma). The ""survivor syndrome"" is addressed--its symptoms, its limitations. There are detailed, essentially Freudian case histories of children of survivors, with an attempt at generalizing on treatment problems. And, provocatively, there's a section devoted to the traumas--and analyses--of the children of Nazi persecutors. Admittedly, much of this material is too technical in its psychoanalytic approach to engage a lay audience. But there are important issues involved at every turn, both historical and psychological. (Most fascinating: the challenge that the Holocaust presents to Freud's basic concept of trauma.) And while this will of course be a fundamental volume for anyone involved in the treatment of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, parts of it will also be read by a wider scholarly audience.