Healers on the fault lines: trauma as a risky opportunity for growth, mental flexibility and the penchant for healing others

Cohen, Seymour S.

doi:10.1002/aps.206

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…However, when the same defense mechanism is activated in order to adapt to laws or norms that serve the particular regional, ethnic, or national milieu of the individual, while violating basic human rights or international laws, weighing the utility of this defense mechanism is arguably much more conflicted for both the ex‐soldiers, their therapists and society at large (see further discussion in Cohen, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breakable and Unbreakable Silences: Implicit Dehumanization and Anti‐Arab Prejudice in Israeli Soldiers’ Narratives Concerning Palestinian Women

Cohen

2015

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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This paper illustrates an empirical paradigm for a minimally-biased characterization of the internal representations of female enemy members by male soldiers in the context of a military occupation. Using a combination of psycholinguistic and psychoanalytic tools, the study examined the associative structure of the language that was used by Israeli exsoldiers in a large corpus of verbatim testimonies detailing their service in the Palestinian occupied territories. Since explicit dehumanization is rare in Israeli official discourse and in media-and political correctness-savvy occupying forces worldwide, this study examined implicit dehumanization through the non-conscious use of spontaneous linguistic choices. Using both computerized and quantitative linguistic analyses, this study tracked a particular pattern or word choice, presumed to capture implicit dehumanization based on a trans-disciplinary definition of the construct. Furthermore, to mitigate the potential confound between fear of the enemy and its dehumanization, this study focused on anecdotes concerning Palestinian women, as they pose less realistic threat to Israeli soldiers. Consistent with this study's formulation of implicit dehumanization, Israeli soldiers tended to describe Palestinian women's mental state in situational and behavioral terms (e.g. scream, make a mess, piss her pants, had a heart attack, etc.). In contrast, empathic inferencewhereby the narrator extends their emotional understanding of themselves and other humans to the person whose emotional state they attempt to describe or understandwas often reserved in the testimonials only to the narrator and his fellow comrades. This evidence for implicit dehumanization is then discussed as a borderline-level defense mechanism within the larger context of both individual-and national-level anti-Arab prejudice in Israel.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breakable and Unbreakable Silences: Implicit Dehumanization and Anti‐Arab Prejudice in Israeli Soldiers’ Narratives Concerning Palestinian Women

Cohen

2015

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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“…It may also be advantageous for future interventions to incorporate a flexible mechanism for secondary prevention that can be adjusted in the case of shifts or escalations in violent conflict. Further, because the ability of mental health workers to address trauma and adversity in their own lives may enhance their capacities for empathy and ambiguity tolerance (Cohen, 2009), additional efforts to support the parents, teachers, and psychosocial workers who implement the interventions may be beneficial. Another consideration is the possible modification of the standard academic curriculum such that it contains psychosocial activities on a regular basis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have become increasingly interested in the factors that influence resilience, or the ability to withstand or overcome adversity (e.g., see Brom, Pat-Horenczyk, & Ford, 2010; Madsen & Abdell, 2010; Wertz, Charmaz, McMullen, Josselson, & Anderson, 2011). In addition, recent efforts (e.g., Cohen, 2009) have described the phenomenon of posttraumatic growth (i.e., the potential for positive psychological enhancement following traumatic experiences). In Palestinian populations, the research literature on resiliency and posttraumatic growth is still in its incipient stages.…”

Section: Children In Zones Of Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research in ongoing conflict zones: Effects of a school-based intervention for Palestinian children.

Constandinides¹,

Kamens²,

Marshoud³

et al. 2011

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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“…Thus, psychoanalytic ego psychology is unique in its ability to account for the paradoxical increase in the activation of the holocaust trauma, as instigated by the Israeli government, and the creation of what is now dubbed “the holocaust industry” (Finkelstein, ) – at a time when Israel's standing in both military and political grounds seems to merit less emphasis on the trauma and more on post‐traumatic growth (e.g. Cohen, ). Consistent with this observation, several historians have noted that while in the 1940s there seems to have been a “code of silence” within Israeli society regarding the holocaust and the narratives of its survivors, the 1950s have witnessed a moderate increase in the awareness of the holocaust and initial attempts to harness its meaning to aid the Zionist narrative.…”

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confidence: 99%

When Unconscious Wishes Become Laws: Policing Memory and Identity in Israel and Palestine

Cohen

2012

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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This paper proposes a psychoanalytically‐informed model for the policing of memory and identity in Israel and Palestine. Borrowing from both empirically‐ and clinically‐validated insights into psychopathology, it purports to account for the increasingly frequent attempts of the Israeli government to suppress alternatives to the extant Zionist narrative using legislative and administrative means. The model explains why, counter‐intuitively, these attempts to impose an idealized Zionist narrative have markedly increased in the past several years, at a time when Israel's military power, geographical expansion and economic prosperity are arguably at an all‐time high. Supported by examples from both world history and Israeli documents, the proposed model suggests a dynamic link between trauma, annihilation anxiety, hyper‐vigilance and defensive behavior on a nation‐wide level, which runs as a leitmotiv in both Israeli government actions and in sentiments expressed by a considerable portion of Israeli society, from the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. The model further uses psychodynamic insights to account for the cognitive‐emotional rigidity underpinning the discrepancy in the perceptions of reality between Israel's narrative and its sundry worldwide alternatives. The model posits that this growing discrepancy between worldwide public opinion and Israeli internal reasoning may underlie the growing disapproval and isolation of Israel in both diplomatic circles and world media. Finally, following psychodynamically‐oriented therapeutic practices, the explanatory power of the model is harnessed to suggest potentially effective remedial attitudes and interventions, whose mutative powers may be of use to psychodynamically‐trained mental health professionals who may be involved in future reconciliation efforts between Israel and Palestine. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

show abstract

Healers on the fault lines: trauma as a risky opportunity for growth, mental flexibility and the penchant for healing others

Cited by 5 publications

References 73 publications

Breakable and Unbreakable Silences: Implicit Dehumanization and Anti‐Arab Prejudice in Israeli Soldiers’ Narratives Concerning Palestinian Women

Breakable and Unbreakable Silences: Implicit Dehumanization and Anti‐Arab Prejudice in Israeli Soldiers’ Narratives Concerning Palestinian Women

Research in ongoing conflict zones: Effects of a school-based intervention for Palestinian children.

When Unconscious Wishes Become Laws: Policing Memory and Identity in Israel and Palestine

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