Responsibility and survivor testimony.

Abstract

The phenomenology of giving testimony, of being witnessed, of witnessing oneself, and "coming into life" are explored in this preliminary and continuing project involving survivors and interviewers. Many of the interviews in this endeavor were obtained in the course of an ongoing group of Cambodian holocaust survivors who wanted to talk about their experiences. Other participants include survivors of poverty, parental suicide, and other tragedies. The authors interviewed survivors at least twice. In the first interview, survivors discussed traumas in their lives. In the second interview, they discussed the process of being heard in the first interview (Did they feel heard? If they did feel heard, what was it like to talk to another about these difficult events and feel like the other heard them?). Additionally, interviewers also were interviewed regarding the experience of the interview process and how they felt as they tried to articulate their experience of this process.