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The illusion of safety in the United States, a fortress protected by the mammoth moats of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, has been shattered for most of us. No longer do we comfort ourselves by giving assistance to—or ignoring—those enduring terrorist attacks in distant regions. “[T]he enormous aggression released by World War II has not been overcome…. The enormous destructive power of the atomic bomb is with us… [and] terrorism has, at least in fantasy, made these weapons of mass destruction available for the very destruction of civilization.” We are confronted by “a new type of culture, in which libidinal ties, hate, and self-destructive tendencies are amalgamated to create a new psychic structure…[in suicide bombers e.g., that] unites life and death in a new powerful combination” (M. S. Bergmann, , p. 412, 402).
It is time to inform ourselves, to learn from the observations of witnesses to the bitter experiences of being terrorized. Danielle Knafo has made this possible. Motivated by 12 years of living in Israel under constant threat of terrorism and as a response to the questions and insecurities of her psychoanalytic colleagues in the United States who recently have also been called upon to confront terror in their patients and in themselves, she compiled this instructive book. In five sections thirty-one professionals—some illustrious, many brave—describe the psychosocial circumstances and sequelae of Living With Terror, the Meaning of Trauma, the varied methods of Working with Trauma, Looking Toward the Future, toward the possibility of prevention and transformation of trauma. A separate section is devoted to September 11.
As the richness and length of the text precludes a thorough discussion and evaluation of each chapter, I have chosen to report on such themes and brief quotes which I believe to be most representative of the tenor of the book and most informative to the psychoanalytically oriented readers. But make no mistake: only a patient study of the te