On Being a Dead, Beloved Child

When the Third is Dead: Memory, Mourning, and Witnessing in the Aftermath of the Holocaust

“…Through the devoted labors of many psychoanalysts, working with both heart and mind with Holocaust survivors over the past 60 years - Bergmann (1985), Kestenberg (1993), Kogan (1995Kogan ( , 2002Kogan ( , 2003, and Laub (1992Laub ( , 2005 are among those who have made essential contributions in this arena -we have learned that the presence of an other who can bear living with that which cannot be represented in words is what gives meaning both to life and to death. Through the devoted labors of many psychoanalysts, working with both heart and mind with Holocaust survivors over the past 60 years - Bergmann (1985), Kestenberg (1993), Kogan (1995Kogan ( , 2002Kogan ( , 2003, and Laub (1992Laub ( , 2005 are among those who have made essential contributions in this arena -we have learned that the presence of an other who can bear living with that which cannot be represented in words is what gives meaning both to life and to death.…”

“…We have all come to recognize that the most basic necessity for psychic aliveness in the aftermath of atrocity is the active witnessing presence of an other. Through the devoted labors of many psychoanalysts, working with both heart and mind with Holocaust survivors over the past 60 years - Bergmann (1985), Kestenberg (1993), Kogan (1995Kogan ( , 2002Kogan ( , 2003, and Laub (1992Laub ( , 2005 are among those who have made essential contributions in this arena -we have learned that the presence of an other who can bear living with that which cannot be represented in words is what gives meaning both to life and to death.…”

Introduction to Jean-Jacques Blévis’s “Remains to Be Transmitted: Primo Levi’s Traumatic Dream”

“…The scope of the trauma of the Holocaust extends beyond individuals to our societies themselves, to our own capacity to take in within our culture what has happened. The recent series of papers in The Psychoanalytic Quarterly in July 2003 (see Kogan 2003) on the treatment of an adult child of Holocaust survivors, by an analyst who was herself a child of survivors, revealed a tension about how the historical reality of the Holocaust is to be handled in an analysis and by fellow analysts. This tension erupted in Brenner's paper, where at one point he used the interjection "Holocaust or no Holocaust" (Brenner 2003, p. 773) in reaction to the clinical paper.…”

My Father, Myself

“… This essay presents material from the second analysis of an offspring of two Holocaust survivors, each of whom lost a child during the war. The first analysis (Kogan ) focused primarily on the patient's relationship with her mother. This second analysis revolves around the elaboration of the complex and painful father–daughter relationship, centering on the events surrounding the death of the patient's father.…”

“…I will also discuss some unique transference and countertransference problems that arose mainly because patient and analyst belong to the same traumatized large group. To illustrate my theme, I will present material from the second analysis of Nurit, whose first analysis served as the inspiration for an earlier paper (Kogan ).…”