Irreducible Cultural Contexts: German–Jewish Experience, Identity, and Trauma in a Bilingual Analysis

Abstract

This article addresses the themes of culture, identity, and trauma in a bilingual analysis between a German-speaking second-generation Holocaust survivor and an analyst of German descent. By paying attention to the shifts between German and English over the course of the therapy, it becomes possible to see how deeply language is intertwined with culture, history, and traumatic memory in the German-Jewish experience. Both patient and analyst are embedded in multiple cultural contexts and participate in language shifts that shape the process of negotiating and revealing identity. The article suggests that identity is neither fixed nor stable, but linked to the fluid and dynamic shifts of our experiences in the presence of the other person, and of language and culture in general. By focusing on the therapeutic interaction between the patient and analyst, the case demonstrates the degree to which the burden of history, struggle with trauma, and legacy of shame are all embedded in and determined by culture and history across contexts and generations.

Limits of understanding: Psychological experience, German memory and the Holocaust

“…My first-hand experience of what it can mean to be Jewish has made me sensitive to the historical and psychological dynamics at work in the German and Jewish experience. These dynamics also came to play a central role in my clinical work with second-and third-generation Holocaust survivors, about which I have written (Frie, 2011b(Frie, , 2012(Frie, , 2013. To illustrate the ethical implications and the challenges involved in responding to the Nazi past and the Holocaust I will draw on another brief autobiographical example.…”

Sameness and Difference: Cultivating Cultural Dialogue

“…Although neglected for many years in the psychoanalytic literature, discussions about the role of culture in the formation of subjective experience, as well as in the therapeutic process, have assumed a more prominent place within the psychoanalytic discourse (Altman, 2000;Straker, 2004;Suchet, 2004;Layton, 2006;Leary, 2007;Cushman, 1996Cushman, , 2000Cushman, , 2010Ipp, 2010;Frie, 2011;Phillips, 2011). These articles suggest the many and varying directions for exploring and understanding the impact of culture on therapeutic action.…”

Emotionality ratings and electrodermal responses to university-related expressions in a native and a non-native language

“…For late bilinguals, numerous findings converge on supporting native language dominance, and this seems to hold across a very rich spectrum of approaches. For an illustration of scope, resistance to shift to the L1 was reported by bilingual psychotherapists when L2 was used by patients as a defence mechanism against painful experience (Kokaliari et al, 2013), or when late bilinguals subconsciously codeswitched to the L2 in discussions about traumatic events (Frie, 2011). Caldwell-Harris (2014) and Sutton et al (2007) in their syntheses of findings on bilingual emotionality both emphasise the role of the context of acquisition.…”