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Can a psychoanalyst leave the analytic room, attend and experience the most bitter conflicts of the contemporary world and participate as a living player in them, without losing his identity as an analyst, and still being keen to interpret what he sees with his analytical lens? The extraordinary human and professional journey of Vamik Volkan seem to respond with a “yes”: it is really possible to be what Green (1994) called “a psychanalyste engagé”, a committed psychoanalyst, and to practice psychoanalysis “sans divan”, without a couch (Recamier, 1993), remaining faithful to the theory while ‘getting your hands dirty’ in the mire of human suffering.
This invaluable documentary film, Vamik's Room , written, directed and produced by Molly Castelloe, took seven years to complete, with the aim to present to a general, and not only a specialist, audience, the life, work and commitment of Vamik Volkan, a psychoanalyst from Cyprus who has been settled in the United States for many years. Five times a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian and professional contributions regarding terrible episodes of war, genocide and torture in the late 20st century, of which he was not only an observer but also a direct protagonist, with letters of acknowledgment from more than 28 countries.
The director, an American artist and writer, Molly Casteloe has shown great commitment to this project, her first documentary and one that she has been intimately involved in; in her words, it was to give hope to her two children and to future generations that she decided to let the world know about Volkan. His words and ideas struck a chord and fascinated her since their first meeting, when Dr Volkan was director of the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) at the School of Medicine of Virginia University (1987-2002). Molly Castelloe had a chance to listen to the story of Volkan and his colleagues' work in the most traumatized areas of the world. She de