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In this discussion of papers presented at a 2017 conference in Prague devoted to the ideas of Otto Fenichel, the author questions the usefulness of the term “radioactive identification” and suggests that the idea of projective identification may suffice to address specific clinical and political situations. The author distinguishes between the suppression of historical facts that can come to haunt subsequent generations and the eradication of traumatic events (such as the Shoa) where words first have to be found to circumscribe and then describe the unfathomable experiences human beings endured.