Remembering to Forget to Remember: Response to Anna Ornstein

I First Met Anna Ornstein twenty-five-years ago when I took her workshop in self psychology. At the time, I had no idea of the similarities in our backgrounds, for in those days we rarely spoke about our Holocaust past. The blanket of silence that had settled over the whole subject after the Second World War was just beginning to lift, so even if I had known about our common history, I doubt that it would have been a topic of conversation between us.

Now so many years later, I am discovering many things about this remarkable woman whose life is an affirmation of her views about resilience and strength in the wake of trauma. From her discussion of my paper, I can see how many ideas about this subject we share.

Dr. Ornstein takes issue as I do with those scientists and practitioners who perceive survivors as victims, inevitably damaged by traumatic events, and suffering from various degrees of psychopathology. In her discussion of my paper, also informed by her reading of my memoir, she points out that sometimes early experiences of exposure to traumatic circumstances can actually be a source of resourcefulness and creativity and lead to an enhanced capacity to grasp complex situations. It is a conclusion that resonates with my personal experience; as would be expected in the presence of a good self psychologist, I feel understood and recognized.

Moreover, I agree with Dr. Ornstein's observation that mental health professionals as a general rule have tended to view survivors in very limited and stereotyped ways. In recent years, even with the focus shifting from damage to resilience, I have noted that the concept of resilience is used to explain why survivors don't react with symptoms or syndromes, as if some special and unusual quality is necessary for people to cope effectively with adversity. In fact, the view that inevitable damage or amazing